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Statue to Miqute Man. 



MY NATIVE LAND. 



The United States: its Wonders, its Beauties, and its People; 

with Descriptive Notes, Character Sk'etches, Folk 

Lore, Traditions, Legends and History, for 

the Amusement of the Old and the 

Instruction of the Youn^. 



JAMES tOX, 

Author of "Our Owa Country." "Missouri at the World's Fair.- "OM and New 
M. Louis, Au Arkansas Eden," "Oklahoma Revisited." Etc 



"Breathes there a iiuui icith soul so dead 
Who never to himself has said, 

This is my own, my native land." 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED^ 

QQ?fRlGHr' 




^^^>r ^^<a^ 



/- 



Published by The Blair Publishing- Co 

1 595- 



^^ 




Copyright, 1S95, 

By Mrs. O. E. Blair. 

All rights reserved. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

OUR nation's birth. 

The Story of Liberty Bell — Impartial Opiuious on the 
Reyolutionary War — The Shot that was Heard Around the 
World — The First Committee of Safety — A Defeat which 
Equaled a Victory — Washington's Earnestness — To Con- 
gress on Horseback — The First 4th of July Celebration. 

CHAPTER H. 

THE WITCH OF SALEM. 

A Relic of Reli2:ious Bigotry — Parson Lawson's Tirade 
against Witchcraft — Extraordinary Court Records of Old 
Puritan Days — Alleged Supernatural Conjuring — A Man 
and his Wife both put to Death — Crushed for Refusing to 
Plead — A Romance of the Old Days of Witch Persecution. 

CHAPTER HI. 

IN PICTURESQUE NEW YORK. 

Some Local Errors Corrected — A Trip Down the Hudson 
River — The Last of the Mohicans — The Home of Rip A'an 
Winkle — The Ladies of Vassar and their Home — West 
Point and its History — Sing Sing Prison — The Falls of 
Niagara — Indians in New York State. 



COXTEXTS. 
CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY, 

The Geographical Center of the United States, and its 
Location West of the Mississippi River — The Center of 
Population — History of Fort Riley — The Gallant "Seventh" 
— Early Troubles of Kansas — Extermination of the Buffalo 
— But a Few Survivors out of Many Millions. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MORMONS AND THEIR WIVES. 

The Pilo-rimage Across the Bad Lands to Utah — Inci- 
dents of the March — Success of the New Colony — Relig- 
ious Persecutions — Murder of an Entire Family — The Curse 
of Polygamy — An Ideal City — Humors of Bathing in Great 
Salt Lake. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE INVASION OF OKLAHOMA. 

A History of the Indian Nation — Early Struggles of 
Oklahoma Boomers — Fis^ht between Home-Seekers and 
Soldiers — Scenes at the Opening of Oklahoma Proper — A 
Miserable Nio;ht on the Prairie — A Race for Homes — Law- 
lessness in the Old Indian Territory. 

CHAPTER VII. 

COWBOYS REAL AND IDEAL. 

A Much Maligned Class — The Cowboy as he Is, and as 
he is Supposed to be — Prairie Fever and how it is Cured — 



CONTEXTS, 

Life on the Riuicli Thirtj' Years Ago and Now — Singular 
Fashions and Changes of Costume — Troubles Encountered 
by would-be Bud iSIen. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WARDS OF OUR NATIVE LAND. 

The Indians' Admirers and Critics — At School and After 
— Indian Courtship and ^Marriage — Extraordinary Dances — 
Gambling by Instinct — How *' Cross-Eye" Lost his Pony — 
Pawniniz: a Baby — Amusinfi: and Degrading Scenes on An- 
nuity Day. 

CHAPTER IX. 

CIVILIZATION ACTUAL AND ALLEGED. 

Tried in the Balances and Found Wanting — Indian 
Archers — Bow and Arrow Lore — Barbarous Customs that 
Die Slowly — ''Great Wolf," the Indian Vanderbilt — How 
the Seri were Taught a Valuable Lesson — Playing with 
Rattlesnakes with Impunity. 

CHAPTER X. 

OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 

Houses on Rocks and Sand Hills — How Many Families 
Dwelt Together in Unitv — Peculiarities of Costumes — 
Pueblo Architecture and Folk Lore — A Historic Struggle 
and how it Ended — Leojends Concerning Montezuma — 
Curious Religious Ceremonies, 



COXTEXTS. 
CHAPTER XI. 

HOW CUSTER LIVED AND DIED. 

''Remember Custer" — An Eye- Witness of the Massacre 
— Custer, Cody and Alexis — A Ride over the Scenes of the 
Unequal Conflict — Major Reno's Marked Failure — How 
"Sitting Bull" Ran Away and Lived to Fight Another Day 
— Why a Medicine Man did not Summon Rain. 

CHAPTER XH. 

AMOXG THE CREOLES. 

Meaning; of the word "Creole" — An Old Aristocratic 
Relic — The Venice of America — Origin of the Creole Car- 
nivals — Rex and his Annual Disguises — Creole Balls — The 
St. Louis Veiled Prophets — The French Market and other 
Landmarks in New Orleans — A Beautiful Ceremony and an 
Untinished Monument. 

CHAPTER Xm. 

THE HEATHEN CHINEE IN HIS ELEMENT. 

A Trip to Chinatown, San Francisco — A House with a 
History — Narrow Alleys and Secret Doors — Opium Smok- 
ing and its Effects — The Highbinders — Celestial Theatricals 
— Chinese Festivals — The Brighter Side of a Great City — 
A Mammoth Hotel and a Beautiful Park. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

BEFORE EMANCIPATION AND AFTER. 

First Importation of Negro Slaves into America — The 
Oriofinal Abolitionists — A Colored Enthusiast and a Coward 
— Origin of the word "Secession" — John Brown's Fanati- 



CONTEXTS. 

cism — Uncle Tom's Cabin — Faithful unto Death — George 
Augustus Sala on the Negro who Lingered too long in the 
Mill Pond. 

CHAPTER XV. 

OUR NATIONAL PARK. 

A Delightful Rhapsody — Early History of Yellowstone 
Park — A Fish Story which Convulsed Congress — The First 
White Man to Visit the Park — A Race for Life — Philosophy 
of the Hot Springs — Mount Everts — From the Geysers to 
Elk Park — Some Old Friends and New Ones — Yellowstone 
Lake — The Angler's Paradise. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE HEROES OF THE IRON HORSE. 

Honor to Avhom Honor is Due — A Class of Men Not 
Always Thoroughly Appreciated at their Worth — An Ama- 
teur's Ride on a Flying Locomotive — From Twelve Miles 
an Hour to Six Times that Speed — The Signal Tower and 
the Men who Work in it — Stealinsi; a Train — A Race with 
Steam — Stories about Bewitched Locomotives and Provi- 
dential Escapes. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 

Early History of Manitou — Zebulon Pike's Important 
Discovery — A Young Medicine Man's Peril and Final 
Triumph — A Health Resort in Years Gone By — The Garden 
of the Gods — The Railroad up Pike's Peak — Early Failures 
and Final Success — The Most Remarkable Road in the 
World — Ridinor Above the Clouds. 



COXTEXTS. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 

INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 

The Grand Caiiou of the Colorado — Niagara Outdone — 
The Course of the Colorado River — A Survey Party Through 
the Canon — Experiences of a Terrible Night — Wonderful 
Contrasts of Color in the Massive Rocks — A Natural "Wall 
a Thousand Feet High — Hieroglyphics which have Never 
been Deciphered — Relics of a Superior Race — Conjecture 
as to the Origin of the Ancient Bearded White Men. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 

Importance of Rivers to Commerce a Generation Ago — 
The Ideal River Man — The Great Mississippi River and its 
Importance to our Native Land — The Treacherous Missouri 
— A First Mate who Found a Cook's Disguise very Con- 
venient — How a Second Mate got over the Inconvenience 
of Temporary Financial Embarrassment. 

CHAPTER XX. 

THROUGH THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 

The Importance of Some of our Newest States — Roman- 
tic History of Montana — The Bad Lands and their Exact 
Opposite — Civilization Away L^p in the Mountains — Indians 
who have Never Quarreled Avith White Men — Traditions 
Concerning Mount Tacoma — Wonderful Towns of the Ex- 
treme Northwest — A State Shaped like a Large Chair — The 
Falls of Shoshone. 



CO^^TEXTS. 
CHAPTER XXI. 

IN THE WARM SOUTHEAST. 

Florida and its Appropriate Name — The First Portions 
of North America Discovered by White Men — Early Vicissi- 
tudes of its Explorers — An Enormous Coast Line — How 
Key West came to be a great Cigar Town — The Suwanee 
River — St. Augustine and its World- Renowned Hotel- 
Old Fort Marion. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Statue to Minute Man, 

Interior of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 

Tomb of General Grant, Eiverside Park, 

A Memory of Rip Van Winkle, 

The Exact Center of United States, 

Brigham Young's Grave, Salt Lake City, 

Chief Eain-in-the-Face and his Favorite Ponv 

The Cowboy as He Is, . 

Civilized Indians, . „ . . 

An Uncivilized Savage, 

The Belle of the Pueblo, 

Custer Battlefield and Monument, 

The Old French Market at New Orleans, 

The Prettiest Chinese Woman in Americ 

Yellowstone Falls, 

In and Around Yellowstone Park, 

A Marvel of Magnificence, 

Climbing Pike's Peak by Rail, 

Hieroglyphic Memoirs of Past Ages, 

A Fin de Siecle Pleasure Steamer, 

Whaleback Steamer on the Lakes, 

Two Views of Mount Tacoma, 

A Restful Southern Home, 



Frontispiece 
Page 17 
35 
53 
71 
89 
107 
125 
143 
IGl 
179 
197 
215 
233 
251 
2(39 
287 
305 
323 
341 
359 
377 
395 



(11) 



MY NATIVE LAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

OUR nation's birth. 

The Story of Liberty Bell — Impartial Opinions on the Revolutionary 
War — The Shot that was Heard Around the World — The First Com- 
mittee of Safety — A Defeat which Equaled a Victory — Washington's 
Earnestness — To Congress on Horseback — The First 4th of July 
Celebration. 

fT was not until April 19th, 1775, that the shot was 
fired which was "heard around the world." But the 
struggle for American Independence was really started 
nearly a quarter of a century earlier, when on the after- 
noon of August 27th, 1753, Liberty Bell was rung to call 
together the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania. 

In the old days of town meetings, training days, town 
schools and Puritans, bells took a more prominent part in 
public affairs than they do to-day. It was usual to call the 
people together for purposes of deliberation by means of a 
village or town bell, and of these bells the one to which we 
refer was the most important and interesting. Liberty 
Bell is well named. It was ordered in the year 1751, and 
it was delivered a- year later. Shortly afterwards, it 
cracked, and had to be recast, but in June, 1753, it was 
finally hung in the Pennsylvania State House at Phila- 
delphia. It has never been removed from the building 
except on two occasions. The first of these was in 1777,^ 

(13) 



14 MY NATIVE LAND. 

when it was taken to AUentown for safety, and the second 
in 1885, when it was exhibited at New Orleans. 

This bell, which sounded the death-blow to tyranny and 
oppression, was first rung to call together the Assembly, 
which immediately resolved to insist upon certain rights 
which had been denied the colonists by the British Crown. 
Eighteen months later, it was a^ain runs to announce 
the meeting at which the rights of the colonists were 
sternly defined and insisted upon. In 1765, it convened 
the meeting of the Assembly at which it was resolved 
to be represented at the Congress of the Colonies in New 
York, and a month later it was mutHed and tolled when the 
"Royal Charlotte" arrived, bearing the much-hated 
stamps, whose landing was not permitted. Again it rang 
mutfled, when the Stamp Act went into operation, and 
when the people publicly burned stamp papers. In ITBS, 
the Liberty Bell called a meeting of the men of 
Philadelphia, who protested once again against the oppres- 
sion of government without representation. In 1771, it 
called the Assembly together to petition the King of 
England for the repeal of the duty on tea, and two years 
later it summoned together the largest crowd ever seen in 
Philadelphia up to that date. At that meeting it was 
resolved that the ship "Polly," loaded with tea, should not 
be allowed to land. 

In 1774, the bell was muffled and tolled on the closing 
of the Port of Boston, and in the following year it con- 
vened the memorable meeting following the battle of Lex- 
ington. On this occasion 8,000 people assembled in 
the State House yard and unanimously agreed to associate 
for the purpose of defending, with arms, their lives, liberty 
and property against all attempts to deprive them of them. 



OUR NATION'S BIRTH. 15 

In Juue, 17 76, Liberty Bell announced the submission to 
Congress of the draft of the Declaration of Independence, 
and on July 4th of the same year, the same bell announced 
the signing of the Declaration. On July 8th of the same 
year, the bell was tolled vigorously for the great proclama- 
tion of America's Independence. The tolling was sus- 
pended while the Declaration was read, and was once more 
rung when that immortal document had been thus formally 
promulgated. 

In April, 1783, Liberty Bell rang the proclamation of 
Peace, and on July 4th, 1826, it ushered in the year of 
Jubilee. 

The last tolling of the bell was in July, 1835, when, 
while slowly tolling, and without any apparent reason, the 
bell, which had played such an important part in the 
War of Independence, and in the securing of liberty for the 
people of this great country, parted through its side, mak- 
ing a large rent, which can still be clearly seen. It was as 
though the bell realized that its great task was accom- 
plished, and that it could leave to other and younger bells, 
the minor duties which remained to be performed. 

This is not a history of the United States, but is rather 
a description of some of the most interesting and remarka- 
ble features to be found in various parts of it. It is 
difficult, however, to describe scenes and buildings without 
at least brief historical reference, and as we present an 
excellent illustration of the apartment in which the Declara- 
tion of Independence was signed, we are compelled to make 
a brief reference to the circumstances and events which 
preceded that most important event in the world's history. 

As w.e have seen, the conflict between the home country 
and the colonies commenced loner before there was anv 



16 MY NATIVE LAN^D. 

actual outbreak. As Mr. Thomas Weutworth Higginsou 
so graphically expresses it, the surrender of Canada to 
England by France in 17153 suddenly opened men's ej-es to 
the fact that British America had become a country so 
large as to make England seem ridiculously small. Even 
the cool-headed Dr. Franklin, writing that same year to 
Mary Stevenson in London, spoke of England as "that 
stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep 
one's shoes dry." A far-seeing French statesman of the 
period looked at the matter in the same way. Choiseul, 
the Prime Minister who ceded Canada, claimed afterwards 
that he had done it in order to destroy the British nation by 
crcatino- for it a rival. This assertion was not made till 
ten years later, and may very likely have been an after- 
thought, but it was destined to be confirmed by the 
facts. 

We have now to deal with the outbreak of a contest 
which was, according to the greatest of the Enolish states- 
men of the period, "a most accursed, wicked, barbarous, 
cruel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical war."' No Ameri- 
can writer ever employed to describe it a combination of 
adjectives so vigorous as those brought together by the 
elder Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. The rights for 
which Americans fought seemed to him to be the common 
rights of Englishmen, and many Englishmen thought the 
same. 

On the other hand, we are now able to do justice to 
those American Loyalists who honestly believed that the 
attempt at independence was a mad one, and who sacrificed 
all they had rather than rebel against their King. Massa- 
chusettensis, the well-known Tory pamphleteer, wrote that 
the annals of the world had not been deformed with a 




MHIH 


BR 










OUR N' AT ION'S BIRTH. 19 

single instance of so unnatural, so causeless, so wanton, so 
wicked a rebellion. 

These strong epithets used on both sides show how 
strangely opinions were divided as to the rebellion and its 
causes. Some of the first statesmen of England defended 
the colonists, and some of the best known men in the 
colonies defended Eng-land. 

The City of Boston at this time had a population of 
about seventeen thousand, as compared with some half a 
million to-day. In its garrison there were three thousand 
British troops, and the laws of Parliament were enforced 
rigidly. The city suffered temporary commercial death 
in consequence, and there were the most vigorous efforts 
made to prevent an open outbreak of hostilities. In Janu- 
ary, 1775, a conflict was barely averted at Marshfield, and 
in the following month the situation was so strained at 
Salem that nothing but great forbearance and presence of 
mind on the part of the colonists prevented bloodshed. 
The Boston massacre of less than five years before was 
still uppermost in men's thoughts, and it was determined 
that the responsibility of the first shot in the war, if war 
there must be, should rest with the Eoyal troops. 

Accordingly, the colonists accepted insult and abuse 
until they were suspected by the British troops of cow- 
ardice. One officer wrote home telling his friends that 
there was no danger of war, because the colonists were 
bullies, but not fighters, adding that any two regiments 
ought to be decimated which could not beat the entire 
force arrayed against them. But the conflict could not be 
long delayed. It was on April 18th, 1775, that Paul Revere 
rode his famous ride. He had seen the two lights in a 
church steeple in Boston, which had been agreed upon as a 



20 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

signal that the British troops were about to seize the sup- 
plies of the patriots at Concord. Sergeant Monroe's 
caution against making unnecessary noise, was met by his 
rejoinder, "You will have noise enough here before long — 
the regulars are coming out." 

Then he commenced his ride for life, or, rather, for 
the lives of others. We all know the result of his ride, 
and how church bells were tolled and signal shots fired to 
warn the people that the soldiers were coming. It was a 
night of tumult and horror, no one knowing what brutality 
they had to expect from the now enraged British soldiers. 
The women of the towns, warned by the pre-arranged 
signals, hurried their children from their homes, and fled 
to farm houses, and even barns in the vicinity. Before 
daybreak the British troops had reached Lexington 
Green. Here they found Captain Parker and 38 men 
standing up before twenty times that number of armed 
troops, indifferent as to their fate, but determined to pro- 
tect their cause and their friends. The Captain's words 
have passed into history. They took the form of an order 
to the men : 

"Don't fire unless you are tired on ; but, if they want a 
war, let it begin here." 

History tells us of few such unequal contests as this. 
The troops fired on the gallant little band, and seven of 
their number were killed. The fight at Concord followed, 
when 450 Americans met the British troops at the North 
Bridge, Avhere 

'•Once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard around the world." 

The British detachment was beaten back in disorder, but 
the main bodv wi.s too strons^ to be attacked. The minute 



OUR XATION'S BIRTH. 21 

men, however, made a most magnificent fight, and at the 
close of the day they had killed 273 British soldiers, only 
93 of their own number being amonsi; the killed or 
missing. 

Thus commenced the War of Independence, the event 
being described by Dr. Joseph Warren in a document of 
sufiicieiit interest to warrant its reproduction in full. 

"The barbarous murders committed on our innocent 
brethren," wrote the doctor, "have made it absolutely 
necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend 
our wives and our children from the butchering hands of 
an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they 
met with in their bloody progress, and enraged at being 
repulsed from the field of slaughter, will, without the least 
doubt, take the first opportunity in their power to ravage 
this devoted country with fire and sword. We conjure 
you, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, 
that you give all assistance possible in forming an army. 
Our all is at stake. Death and devastation are the instant 
consequences of delay. Every moment is . infinitely 
precious. An hour lost may deluge our country in l)lood, 
and entail i)erpetual slavery upon the few of your pos- 
terity who may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, 
as you will answer to your country, to your own con- 
sciences, and, q,bove all, as 3'ou will answer to God himself, 
that you will hasten and encourage, by all possible means, 
the enlistment of men to form an army, and send them 
forward to headquarters at Cambridge, with that expedi- 
tion which the vast importance and instant urgency of the 
affair demand." 

Two days after the fight, the Massachusetts Com- 
mittee of Safety resolved to enlist 8,000 men, an event 



22 MY NATIVE LAND. 

which our old friend Liberty Bell celebrated by a vigorous 
tolling. All over the colonies a spirit of determination to 
resist spread like lightning, and the shot that was heard 
around the world was certainly heard very distinctly in 
every nook and corner of New England, and of the old 
Atlantic States. Naturally, there was at first a lack of 
concentration and even of discipline ; but what was lacking 
in these features was more than made up for by bravery and 
determination. As John Adams wrote in 1818, the army 
at Cambridge at this time was not a National army, for 
there was no nation. It was not even an army of the 
United Colonies, because the Congress at Philadelphia 
had not adopted or acknowledged the army at Cambridge. 
It was not even the New England army, for each State 
had its separate armies, which had united to imprison the 
British army in Boston. There was not even the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the allied armies. 

These anomalies, of course, righted themselves rapidly. 
Gage's proclamation of martial law expedited the battle 
at Bunker Hill, which was brought about by the impa- 
tience of the British troops, and by the increased confi- 
dence among the colonists, resulting from the fights at 
Lexington and Concord. It is true, of course, that the 
untrained American troops failed to vanquish the British 
army at Bunker Hill, but the monument at that spot cele- 
brates the fact that for two hours the attacks of the 
regulars were withstood. A prominent English news- 
paper described the battle as one of innumerable errors on 
the part of the British. As William Tudor wrote so 
graphically, "The Ministerial troops gained the hill, but 
were victorious losers. A few more such victories and 
they are undone." Many writers have been credited with 



OUB NATION'S BIRTH. 23 

the authorship of a similar sentiment, written from the 
American standpoint. *'It is true that we were beaten, 
but it will not take many such defeats to accomplish a 
magnificent victory." 

What began to be known as the great American army 
increased in strength. It was adopted by Congress, and 
George Washington placed in command. Under the his- 
toric elm tree at Cambridge, Mass., which was the scene of 
so many important councils in the first hours of the life of 
the United States, he assumed the authority bestowed 
upon him with this office, and a week later he held a council 
with his officers. He found some 17,000 men at his com- 
mand, whom he described as a mixed multitude of people 
under very little discipline. 

William Emerson, grandfather of the great poet, in a 
soliloquy on the strange turn events had taken, said "Who 
would have thought, twelve months past, that all Cam- 
bridge and Charleston would be covered over with Amer- 
ican camps and cut up into forts and entrenchments, and 
all the lands, fields and orchards laid common, with horses 
and cattle feedins^ on the choicest mowino; land, and laro-e 
parks of well-regulated locusts cut down for firewood. 
This, I nmst say, looks a little melancholy. It is yoxy divert- 
ing to walk among the camps. They are as different in 
their look as the owners are in their dress, and every tent 
is a portraiture of the temper and tastes of the persons who 
encamp in it. Some are made of boards and some of sail- 
cloth ; some partly of one and some partly of the other ; 
again, others are made of stone and turf, brick or brush. 
Some are thrown up in a hurry, others curiously wrought 
with doors and windows, done with wreaths and withes, in 
the manner of a basket. Some are proper tents, looking 



24 MY XATIVE LAXD, 

like the rooiilar camp of the enemy. In these are the Khode 
Ishmders, who are furnished with tent eqnipages and every- 
thing in the most exact Enghsh style. However, I think 
this great variety is rather a beauty than a blemish in the 
army." 

As was to be expected, there was more or less of a lack 
of harmony and unity among the companies of men col- 
lected together to form an army to light for liberty. 
History tells us that there was even a little jealousy between 
the four New England colonies. There was also a good deal 
of distrust of Washington. It was argued that at least one- 
third of the class from which he came had Tory and 
Royalist inclinations, and what guarantee had they that 
"Washington was not one of their number? Washington 
himself found that those who styled themselves in old 
country parlance "The Gentry," were loyal to King George 
rather than to the colonies, and while his own men Avere 
inclined, at times, to doubt the sincerity of the Father of 
his Countrv, the very men with whom he was suspected of 
being in sympathy were denouncing him with Aigor. 

Washington, to his lasting credit be it said, was indiffer- 
ent both to praise and censure. Seeing that discipline was 
the one thing needful, he commenced to enforce it with an 
iron hand. He declined any remuneration, and gave his 
services freely to the cause. He found himself short 
of ammunition, and several times he lost a number of 
his men. In the spring of 177G, Washington went to 
New York with his Continental army. Here he found 
new ditHculties, and met with a series of mishaps. The 
failure of the advance into Canada during the winter 
had hurt materially, but the bravery of the troops in 
the Carolinas came as a irrand encourairement. 



OUR NATION'S BIRTH. 25 

We need not trace further the progress of the war, or 
note how, through many discouragements and difficulties, 
the cause of right was made to triumph over the cause of 
might. We will pass on to note a few of the interesting 
facts in connection with the signing of the Declaration of 
Independence. To-day, our Senators and Congressmen 
travel to the National Capital in Pullman cars, surrounded 
by every luxury that wealth and influence can bring 
them . 

In the days of the Continental Congress it required a 
good deal more nerve to fulfill one's duty. The delegate had 
to journey to Congress on horseback. Sometimes he could 
find a little country inn at which he could sleep at night, 
but at others he had to camp in the open as best he could. 
Frequently a friendly warning would cause him to make a 
detour of several miles in order to escape some threatened 
danger, and, altogether, his march to the capital was far 
from being triumphant. 

At this particular period the difiiculties were more than 
usually great. The delegates arrived at Philadelphia jaded 
and tired. They found stable room for their horses, made 
the best toilet possible, and found their way at once to 
Independence Hall, where opinions were exchanged. On 
the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia submitted a 
series of resolutions, under the instructions of the Virginia 
Assembly — resolutions which, it may be stated, pledged 
the colonies to carry on the Avar until the English were 
entirely driven out of the country. Congress declared 
deliberately that the United States Avas absolved from all 
allegiance to the British CroAvn, and it then proceeded to 
burn its bridges, by declaring the expediency of taking 
effectual measures for forminij: foreiijn alliances. John 



20 MY NATIVE LAND. 

Adams soc'Diulod the resolutions, -which wore not passed 
without debate. 

Delegates from New York, Pennsylvania and South 
Carolina opposed the proposition very vigorously, one 
nioniber stating that it required the impudence of a New 
Englander for them, in their disjointed state, to propose a 
treaty \o a nation now at peace; that no reason could be 
assigned for i)ressiug this measure but the reason of every 
madman — a show of spirit. John Adams defended the 
resolutions, claiming that they proclaimed objects of the 
most stupendous magnitude, in which the lives and liberties 
of millions yet unborn were infinitely interested. Finally, 
the consideration was postponed, to be passed almost 
unanimously on July l\1. John Adams was most enthu- 
siastic over this result, and, writing to his wife on the 
subject, he said: 

''The 2d day of July, 177G. will be the nmst memorable 
ejHH'h in the history of America. I am apt to believe that 
it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great 
anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as a 
day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God 
Almighty, from one end of the continent to the other, 
from this time forward, forcverniore."' 

But although the day referred to by John Adams saw 
the thiriccn colonies become independent States, it is July 
the 4th that the country celebrates. On that day the 
Declaration of Independence was promulgated. This mar- 
velous document was prepared by Jefferson in a small brick 
house. Mliich then stood out in the tields, but which is now 
known as the southwest corner of Market and Seventh 
Streets. Philadelphia. It is situated within about four 
hundred yards of Independence Square. In his little room 



OUB NATION'S BIRTH. 27 

in this house, on a very small writing desk, which is still in 
existence, Jefferson drafted the title deed of our liberties. 
He wrote without reference of any kind, merely })hicing 
upon paper the succession of thoughts which had been 
paramount in his mind for years. In the original docu- 
ment, as submitted by Jefferson, there appeared a stern 
condemnation of the "piratical warfare against human 
nature itself," as slavery was described. This was stricken 
out by Congress, and finally the document, as amended, 
was ado})ted by the vote of twelve colonics, New York 
declining to vote. 

We give an illustration of the Interior of Indoi)endence 
Hall. Here it was that the Declaration was signed. 
Accordinjj to some authorities the sii>:niiio- did not take 
place on July 4th, while according to others it did. Some 
records seem to show that fifty-four of the fifty-six names 
were attached to the parchment on August 2d. tJefferson 
frequently stated that the signing of the Declaration was 
hastened by a very trivial circumstance. Near the Hall there 
was a large stable, Avhere flies abounded. All the delegates 
wore silk stockings, and were thus in a condition to be easily 
annoyed by flies. The heat was intoleral)le, and a 
tremendous invasion by the little pests, who were not 
retarded by fly screens or mosquito bars, drove the legis- 
lators almost frantic, and caused them to append their 
signatures to the document with almost indecent haste. 

However this may be, the Declaration was finally signed, 
and Liberty Bell proclaimed the fact to all within hearing. 
John Hancock, we are told, referred to his almost school- 
boy signature with a smile, saying that John Bull could 
read his name without spectacles. Franklin is said to have 
remarked that they must all hang together, or else most 



28 3IY jVATIVB land. 

assuredly they would all hang separately — a play upon 
words showing that the patriot's sense of humor was too 
admirably developed to be dimmed even by an event of 
this magnitude. 

There were rejoicings on every hand that the great act 
had been accomplished. A very pleasing story tells of 
how an aged bell-ringer waited breathlessly to announce to 
waking thousands the vote of Congress. This story has 
since been denied, and it seems evident that the vote was 
not announced until the following day, when circulars were 
issued to the people. On July 6th, the Declaration was 
printed in a Philadelphia newspaper, and on the 8th, 
John Nixon read the Declaration in the yard of Independ- 
ence Hall. On the same da}^ the Royal Arms over the 
door of the Supreme Court Room w^ere torn down, and the 
trophies thus secured burned. 

The first 4th of July celebration of which we have 
any record, took place two years after the signing. 
General Howe had left the city shortly before, and every 
one was feeling bright and happy. In the diary of one of 
the old patriots who took part in this unique celebration, 
appears the following quaint, and even picturesque, 
description of the events of the day: 

"On the glorious 4th of July (1778), I celebrated in 
the City Tavern, with my brother delegates of Congress 
and a number of other gentlemen, amounting, in whole, to 
about eighty, the anniversary of Independency. The enter- 
tainment was elegant and well conducted. There were four 
tables spread; two of them extended the whole length of 
the room; the other two»crossed them at right angles. At 
the end of the room, opposite the upper table, was erected 
an Orchestra. At the head of the upper table, and at the 



OUR N ATI OX'S BIRTH. 29 

President' s right hand, stood a large baked pudding, in the 
center of which was planted a staff, on which was displayed 
a crimson flag, in the midst of which was this emblematic 
device: An eye, denoting Providence; a label, on which 
was inscribed, 'An appeal to Heaven;' a man with a drawn 
sword in his hand, and in the other the Declaration of 
Independence, and at his feet a scroll inscribed, • The 
declaratory acts.' As soon as the dinner began, the music, 
consisting of clarionets, hautboys, French horns, violins 
.and bass-viols, opened and continued, making proper 
pauses, until it was finished. Then the toasts, followed by 
a discharge of field-pieces, were drank, and so the after- 
noon ended. On the evening there was a cold collation 
and a brilliant exhibition of fireworks. The street was 
crowded with people during the exhibition. 

"What a strange vicissitude in human affairs! These, 
but a few years since colonies of Great Britain, are now 
free, sovereign, and independent States, and now celebrate 
the anniversary of their independence in the very city 
where, but a day or two before, General Howe exhibited 
his ridiculous Champhaitre." 

Independence Hall remains to-day in a marvelous state 
of preservation. At the great Centennial Exposition, held 
to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the events to 
which we have alluded in this chapter, tens of thousands of 
people passed through the room in Avhich the Declaration 
of Independence was signed, and gazed with mingled feel- 
ings upon the historical bell, which, although it had long 
outlived its usefulness, had in days gone by done such 
grand proclaiming of noble truth, sentiment and action. 
Up to quite a recent date, justice was administered in the 
old building, but most of the courts have now been moved 



30 MY NATIVE LAND. 

to the stately structure modern Philadelphia is now erect- 
ing at the cost of some $16,000,000. 

Independence Hall and Independence Square are lov- 
ingly cared for, and visitors from all nations are careful to 
include them both in their tour of sight-seeing while in this 
country. Within the Hall they find old parchments and 
Eighteenth Century curiosities almost without number, and 
antiquarians find sutficient to interest and amuse them for 
several days in succession. Every lover of his native land, 
no matter what that land may be, raises his hat in reverence 
when in this ancient and memory-inspiring building, and 
he must be thoughtless, indeed, who can pass through it 
without paying at least a mental tribute of respect to the 
memories of the men who were present at the birth of the 
greatest nation the world has ever seen, and who secured 
for the people of the United States absolute liberty. 

The illustration of the interior of Independence Hall 
on page 17, was furnished for use in this work by the 
National Company of St. Louis, publishers of ''Our Own 
Country," a large work descriptive of a tour through- 
out the most picturesque sections of the United States. 
The letter-press in "Our Own Country" was written by 
the author of this work, and it is one of the finest tributes 
to the picturesqueness of America that has ever been pub- 
lished. Other illustrations in this work Avere also kindly 
supplied by the same publishing house. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 

A Relic of Religious Bigotry — Parson Lavvson's Tirade Against 
Witclicraft — Extraordinary Court Records of Old Puritan Days — 
Alleged Supernatural Conjiiring — A Man and his Wife both put to 
Death — Crushed for Refusing to Plead — A Romance of the Old Days 
of Witch Persecution. 

BMONG the curiosities of New England shown to 
tourists and visitors, is the original site of some of 
the extraordinary trials and executions for witchcraft 
in the town of Salem, now known as Danvers, Mass. 
Looking back upon the events of two hundred years ago, 
the prosecution of the alleged witches appears to us to 
have been persecution of the most infamous type. The 
only justification for the stern Puritans is the fact that 
they inherited their ideas of witchcraft and its evils from 
their forefathers, and from the country whence most of 
them came. 

One of the earliest precepts of religious bigotry was, 
"Thou shalt not allow a witch to live," and from time 
immemorial witchcraft appears to have been a capital 
offense. It is on record that thousands of people have, 
from time to time, been legally murdered for alleged inter- 
course and leaguing with the Evil One. The superstition 
seems to have gained force rather than lost it by the spread 
of early Christianity. As a rule, the victims of the craze 
were women, and the percentage of aged and infirm women 
was always very large. One of the greatest jurists of 

(BI) 



32 MY N'ATIVE LARD. 

Eno-land, during the Seventeenth Century, condemned two 
vounfy ofirls to the g-allows for no other offense than the 
alleo-ed crime of havino^ exerted a baneful influence over 
certain victims, and having, what would be called in certain 
districts, "hoodooed" them. 

In Scotland the craze was carried to still further 
leno-ths. To be accused of witchcraft was to be con- 
demned as a matter of course, and the terrible deat^i of 
burnino- at the stake was the invariable sentence. Most 
of the victims made imaginary confessions, preferring to 
die at once than to be tortured indefinitely. In the year 
171(3, a wealthy lady and her nine-j^ear-old daughter were 
hanged for witchcraft, and even thirty or forty years later 
the records of Great Britain are sullied by another similar 
case of persecution. 

These unsavory records are given in order to correct a 
misapprehension as to the part the old Puritans took in the 
persecutions. Man}^ people seriously believed that the idea 
of witchcraft, as a capital offense, originated in Salem, and 
attribute to the original witch-house the reputation of 
having really given birth to a new superstition and a new 
persecution. As we have seen, this is entirely erroneous. 
The fact that the Puritans copied a bad example, instead of 
setting a new one, should, at least, be remembered in. 
palliation of the unfortunate blot upon their otherwise 
clean escutcheon. 

In the year 1704, one Deodat Lawson, minister at 
Salem during the last sixteen or seventeen years of the 
Seventeenth Century, published a remarkable work, entitled 
"Christ's Fidelity, the only Shield against Satan's Malig- 
nity." In this work appears a record of the so-called 
calamitv at Salem, which the author tells us was afflicted. 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 33 

about the year 1692, "with a very sore and grievous inflic- 
tion, in which they had reason to believe that the Sovereign 
and Holy God was pleased to permit Satan and his instru- 
ments to affright and afflict those poor mortals in such an 
astonishing and unusual manner." 

The record of Parson Lawson is so realistic and em- 
blematic of the times in which he lived, that we repro- 
duce some of his own expressions. Thus, he says, "Now, 
I having for some time before attended the work of the 
Ministry in Salem Village, the report of those great afflic- 
tions came quickly to my notice, the more so, because the 
first person afflicted was in the minister's family, who 
succeeded me after I was removed from them. In ])ity, 
therefore, to my Christian friends and former acquaintance 
there, I was much concerned about them, frequently con- 
sulted with them, and (by Divine assistance) prayed for 
them ; but especially my concern was augmented when it 
was reported at an examination of a person suspected 
for witchcraft, that my wife and daughter, who died three 
years before, were sent out of the world under the 
malicious operations of the infernal powers, as is more 
fully represented in the following remarks. I did then 
desire, and was also desired by some concerned in the 
court, to be there present that I might hear what was 
alleged in that respect, observing, therefore, when I was 
aijiongst them, that the case of the afflicted was very 
amazing and deplorable, and the charges brought against 
the accused such as were grounds of suspicion, yet very 
intricate and difficult to draw up right conclusions about 
them. They affirmed that they saw the ghosts of sever:d 
departed persons, who, at their appearing, did instigate 
them to discover such as (they said) were instruments to 



34 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

hasten their death, threatening sorely to atHict them if they 
did not make it known to the magistrates. 

"They did affirm at the examination, and again at the 
trial of an accused person, that they saw the ghosts of his 
two wives (to whom he had acted very ill in their lives, as 
was i)roved by several testimonies), and also that they saw 
the ghosts of mv wife and daucjhter ( who died above three 
years before), and they did affirm that when the very 
ghosts looked on the prisoner at the bar they looked red, 
as if the blood Avould fly out of their faces with indignation 
at him. The manner of it was thus: Several afflicted 
being before the prisoner at the bar. on a sudden they flxed 
all their eyes together on a certain place on the floor before 
the prisoner, neither moving their eyes nor bodies for some 
few minutes, nor answering to any question which was 
asked them. So soon as that trance Avas over, some being 
out of sight and hearing, they were all, one after another, 
asked what they saw, and they did all agree that they saw 
those ghosts above mentioned. I was present and heard 
and saw the whole of what jiassed upon that account 
during the trial of that })erson who was accused to be the 
instrument of Satan's malice therein. 

••Sundry pins have been taken out the wrists and arms 
of the afflicted, and one, in time of examination of a 
suspected person, had a pin run through both her upper 
and lower lip when she was called to speak, yet no appar- 
ent festering followed thereupon after it Avas taken out. 
Some of the afflicted, as they were striving in their fits in 
open court, have (by invisible means) had their Avrists 
bound together with a real cord, so as it could hardly be 
taken off without cutting. Some afflicted have been found 
with their arms tied and hanged upon a hook, from whence 




Ton:\b of Ger\eral Graqt, Riverside ParK., New YorK. 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 37 

others have beeu forced to take them clown, that they 
might not expire in that posture. Some atflicted have 
been drawn under tables and beds by undiscerned force, so 
as they could hardly be pulled out. And one was drawn 
half way over the side of a well, and with much difficulty 
recovered back again. When they were most grievously 
afflicted, if they were brought to the accused, and the 
suspected person's hand but laid upon them, they were 
immediately relieved out of their tortures; but if the 
accused did but look on them, they were immediately 
struck down again. Wherefore, they used to cover the 
face of the accused while they laid their hands on the 
afflicted, and then it obtained the desired issue. For it 
hath been experienced (both in examinations and trials) 
that so soon as the afflicted came in sight of the accused, 
they were immediately cast into their fits. Yea, though 
the accused were among the crowd of people, unknown to 
the sufferers, yet on the first view they were struck down ; 
which Avas observed in a child of four or five years of age, 
when it was apprehended that so many as she would look 
upon, either directly or by turning her head, were immedi- 
ately struck into their fits. 

"An iron spindle of a woolen wheel, being taken very 
strangely out of an house at Salem Village, was used by a 
spectre as an instrument of torture to a sufferer, not being 
discernible to the standers by until it was by the said 
sufferer snatched out of the sijectre's hand, and then it 
did immediately appear to the persons present to be really 
the same iron spindle. 

"Sometimes, in their fits, they have had their tongues 
drawn out of their mouths to a fearful length, their heads 
turned very much over their shoulders, and while they 

3 



38 MY NATIVE LAND. 

have been so strained in their fits, and had their arms and 
leo-s, etc., wrested as if they were quite dislocated, the 
blood hath gushed plentifully out of their mouths for a 
considerable time together; which some, that they might 
be satisfied that it was real blood, took upon their finger 
and rubbed on their other hand. I saw several together 
thus violently strained and bleeding in their fits, to my 
very great astonishment that my fellow mortals should be 
so grievously distressed by the invisible powers of dark- 
ness. For certainly all considerate persons who beheld 
these things must needs be convinced their motions in 
their fits were preternatural and involuntary, both as to 
the manner, which was so strange, as a well person could 
not (at least without great pain) screw their bodies into; 
and as to the violence, also, they were preternatural 
motions, being much beyond the ordinary force of the 
same persons when they were in their right minds. So 
that, being such grievous sufferers, it would seem very 
hard and unjust to censure them of consenting to or hold- 
ing any voluntary converse or familiarity with the devil. 

"Some of them were asked how it came to pass that 
they were not affrighted when they saw tlie Black-man. 
They said they were at first, but not so much afterwards. 
Some of them afiirmed they saw the Black-man sit on the 
gallows, and that he whispered in the ears of some of the 
condemned persons when they were just ready to be turned 
off — even while they were making their last speech. 

"Some of them have sundry times seen a White-man 
appearing among the spectres, and as soon as he appeared, 
the Bhick-Witches vanished; they said this White-man 
had often foretold them what respite they should have 
from their fits; as, sometimes, a day or two or more. 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 39 

which fell out accordingly. One of the afflicted said she 
saw him in her fit, and was with him in a glorious place, 
which had no candle or sun, yet was full of light and 
brightness, where there was a multitude in 'white, glitter- 
ing robes,' and they sang the song in Rev. v, 9. She was 
loth to leave that place and said: 'How long shall I stay 
here? Let me be along with you,' She Avas grieved she 
could stay no longer in that place and company. 

"A young woman that was afflicted at a fearful rate 
had a spectre appear to her with a white sheet wrapped 
about it, not visible to the standers by, until this sufferer 
(violently striving in her fit) snatched at, took hold and 
tore off the corner of that sheet. Her father, being by 
her, endeavored to lay hold of it with her, that she might 
retain Avhat she had gotten ; but at the passing away of the 
spectre, he had such a violent twitch of his hand as it 
would have been torn off. Immediately thereupon appeared 
in the sufferer's hand the corner of a sheet, a real cloth, 
visible to the spectators, which (as it is said) remains still 
to be seen." 

It was proved, the records of the time continue, by 
substantial evidences against one person accused, that he 
had such an unusual strength (though a very little man) 
that he could hold out a gun with one hand, behind the 
lock, which was near seven foot in the barrel, being such 
as a lusty man could command with both hands, after the 
usual manner of shooting. It was also proved that ho 
lifted barrels of metal and barrels of molasses out of a 
canoe alone; and that, putting his fingers into a barrel of 
molasses, full within a finger's length, according to custom, 
he carried it several paces. And that he put his finger 
into the muzzle of a sun which was more than five foot in 



40 MT NATIVE LAND. 

the barrel, and lifted up the butt end thereof, lock, stock 
and all, without any visible help to raise it. It was also 
testified that, being abroad with his wife and his wife's 
brother, he occasionally stayed behind, letting his wife and 
her brother walk forward ; but, suddenly coming up with 
them, he was angry with his wife for what discourse had 
passed betwixt her and her brother. They wondering how 
he should know it, he said: *'I know your thoughts," at 
which expression they, being amazed, asked him how he 
could do that, he said: "My God whom I serve makes 
known your thoughts to me." 

Some affirmed that there were some hundreds of the 
society of witches, considerable companies of whom Avere 
affirmed to muster in arms by beat of drum. In time of 
examinations and trials, they declared that such a man was 
wont to call them together from all quarters to witch- 
meetings, with the sound of a diabolical trumpet. 

Being brought to see the prisoners at the bar, upon their 
trials, they swore, in open court, that they had oftentimes 
seen them at witch meetings, "where was feasting, dan- 
cing and jollity, as also at devil sacraments, and particularly 
that they saw such a man amongst the accursed crew,, 
and affirming that he did minister the sacrament of Satan 
to them, encouraging them to go on in their way, and that 
they should certainly prevail. They said, also, that such a 
woman was a deacon and served in distributino- the diaboli- 
cal element. They affirmed that there were great numbers 
of the witches." 

With such sentiments as these prevailing, it is not at 
all remarkable that the alles^ed witches were treated with 
continual and conspicuous brutality. One old lady of 
sixty, named Sarah Osburn, was hounded to death for 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 41 

being a witch. The poor old lady, who was in fairly good 
circumstances, and appears to have been of good character, 
was put upon her trial for witchcraft. For three days, 
more or less ridiculous testimony was given against her, 
and a number of little children, who had evidently been 
carefully coached, stated upon the stand that Mrs. Osburn 
had bewitched them. She was called upon by the court 
to confess, which she declined to do, stating that she was 
rather a victim than a criminal. She was sent to jail, and 
treated with so much brutality that she died before it was 
possible to execute her in the regulation manner. 

Bridget Bishop was another of the numerous victims. 
The usual charges were brought against her, and she was 
speedily condemned to death. Before the sentence was 
executed, the custom of taking council with the local 
clergy was followed. These good men, while they coun- 
seled caution in accepting testimony, humbly recommended 
the government to the speedy and vigorous prosecution of 
such as "had rendered themselves obnoxious by infringing 
the wholesome statutes of the English Nation for the 
detection of witchcraft." Following this recommendation, 
double and treble hangings took place, and there was 
enough brutality to appease the appetite of the most 
vindictive and malicious. 

Perhaps the most extraordinary record of witchcraft 
persecution at the end of the Seventeenth Century was 
that of Giles Corey and his wife INlartha. The singular 
feature of the case is, that the husband had been one of 
the most enthusiastic declaimers against the unholy crime 
of witchcraft, while his good wife had been rather disposed 
to ridicule the idea, and to condemn the prosecutions as 
persecutions. She did her best to prevent Giles from 



42 31 Y NATIVE LAND. 

attending trials, and one of the most serious charges 
against her was that on one occasion she hid the family 
saddle, so as to prevent her lord and master from riding 
to one of the examinations. 

This attempt to assert woman's rights two hundred 
years ago was resented Very bitterly, and two enthusiastic 
witch-hunters were sent to her house to entrap her into a 
confession. On the way they made inquiries, which 
resulted in their being able to patch up a charge against 
the woman for walking in ghostly attire during the night. 
When the detectives called at the house she told them she 
knew the object of their visit, but that she was no witch, 
and did not believe there was such a thing. The mere 
fact of her knowing the object of their visit was regarded 
as conclusive evidence against her, although a fair-minded 
person would naturally suggest that, in view of local senti- 
ment, her guess was a very easy one. The poor woman 
was immediately arrested and placed on trial. Several 
little children were examined, and these shouted out in the 
witness-stand, that when the afflicted woman bit her lip in 
her grief, they were seized with bodily pains, which con- 
tinued until she loosened her teeth. The chronicles of the 
court tell us, with much solemnity, that when the 
Avoman's hands were tied her victims did not suffer, but 
the moment the cords were removed they had fits. 

Even her husband was called as a witness against her. 
His evidence does not appear to have been very important 
or relevant. But another witness, a Mrs. Pope, who 
appears to have been an expert in these matters, and to 
have been called at nearly every trial, took off her shoe in 
court and threw it at the prisoner's head, an act of inde- 
corum which was condoned on the o-round of the evident 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 43 

sincerity of the culprit. The poor woman was condemned, 
as a matter of course, and when she was removed to jail, a 
deputation from the church of which she was a member 
called upon her and excommunicated her. She mounted 
the ladder which led to the gallows with much dignity, 
and died without any attempt to prolong her life by a con- 
fession. 

The fate of her husband was still more terrible. Not- 
withstanding his zeal, and the fact that he had given 
evidence against his own wife, he was arrested, charged 
with a similar offense. Whether hypnotic influences were 
exerted, or whether the examining justices merely imag- 
ined things against the prisoner, cannot be known at this 
time. The court records, however, state that while the 
witnesses were on the stand, they were so badly atHicted 
with fits and hurts, that the prisoner's hands had to be tied 
before they could continue their testimony. Unlike his 
wife, the poor man did not deny the existence of witch- 
craft, and merely whined out, in reply to the magistrate's 
censure, that he was a poor creature and could not help it. 
The evidence against him was very slight, indeed, and he 
was remanded to jail, where he lay unmolested, and 
apparently forgotten, for five or six months. 

He was then excommunicated by his church, and brought 
before the court again. Sojourn in jail seems to have made 
the old man stubborn, for when he was once more con- 
fronted by his persecutors he declined to plead, on the 
ground that there was no charge against him. An old 
obsolete English law was revived against him, and the terri- 
ble sentence was pronounced that for standing mute he be 
remanded to the prison from whence he came and put into 
a low, dark chamber. There he was to be laid on his back, 



44 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

on the bare floor, without clothino-. As o-reat a Aveio:ht of 
iron as he could bear Avas to be phiced upon his body, and 
there to remain. The first day he was to have three morsels 
of bread, and on the second day three draughts of w^ater, to 
be selected from the nearest pool that could l)e found. 
Thus was the diet to be alternated, day bj day, until he 
either answered his accusation or died. 

On September 10th, 1692, death came as a happy relief 
to the miserable man, who had beijored the sheriff to add 
greater Aveights so as to expedite the end. This is the only 
case on record of a man haying been "pressed to death" 
in New^ England for refusing to plead, or for any other 
offense. There are a few cases on record where this in- 
human law was enforced preyiously in England, but it was 
always regarded as a relic of medifeyal barbarity, and the 
fact that it was revived in the witch persecutions is a very 
significant one. After his death, an attempt was made to 
justify the act by the statement that Corey himself had 
pressed a man to death. This justification appears feeble, 
and to be without any corroborative testimony. 

Another very remarkable witch story has about it a 
tincre of romance, althoujzh the main facts actually occurred 
as stated. A sailor named Orcutt, left his sweetheart on 
one of his regular voyages, promising to return at an early 
date to claim his bride. The girl he left behind him, whose 
name was Margaret, appears to have been a very attractive, 
innocent young lady, who suffered considerably from the 
jealousy of a rival. Soon after the departure of her lover, 
the witch difficulty arose, and the young girl was much 
worried and grieved at what happened. On one occasion 
she happened to say to a friend that she was sorry for the 
unfortunate witches who were to be hano:ed on the follow- 



THE WITCHES OF SALEM. 45 

ing day. The friend appears to have been tin enemy in 
disguise, and, turning to INIargaret, told her that if she 
talked that way she would herself be tried as a witch. 
As an evidence of how vindictive justice was at this time, 
the poor girl was arrested by the sheriff on the following 
day, in the name of the King and Queen, on a charge of 
witchcraft. The young girl was led through the streets 
and jeered at by the crowd. Arrived at the court, her 
alleged friend gave a variety of testimony against her. The 
usual stories about aches and pains were of course told. 
Some other details were added. Thus, Margaret by look- 
ing at a number of hens had killed them. She had also 
been seen running around at night in spectral attire. The 
poor girl fainted in the dock, and this was regarded as a 
chastisement from above, and as direct evidence of her 
guilt. She was removed to the jail, where she had to lie on 
a hard bench, only to be dragged back into court the 
following day, to be asked a number of outrageous 
questions. 

With sobs she protested her innocence, l)ut as she did 
so, the witnesses against her called out that they were in 
torment, and that the very moticm of the girl's lips caused 
them terrible pain. She was sentenced to be hanged with 
eight other alleged witches two days later, and was carried 
back, fainting, to her cell. In a few minutes the girl was 
delirious, and began to talk about her lover, and of her 
future prospects. Even her sister was not allowed to 
remain with her during the night, and the frail young 
creature was left to the tender mercies of heartless jailors. 

A few hours before the time set for execution, young 
Orcutt sailed into the harbor, and before daybreak he was 
at the house. Here he learned for the first time the awful 



46 MY NATIVE LAND. 

calamity which had befallen his sweetheart in his absence. 
At 7 o'clock he was allowed to enter the jail, with the 
convicted girl's sister. At the prison door they were 
informed that the wicked girl had died during the night. 
Knowing that there was no hope under any circumstances 
of the sentence being remitted, the bereaved ones regarded 
the news as good, and although they broke down with grief 
at the shipwreck of their lives, they both realized that, to 
use the devout words of the victim's sister, "The Lord had 
delivered her from the hands of her enemies." 

The record of brutality in connection with the witch 
agitation might be continued almost without limit, for the 
number of victims was very great. Visitors to Danvers 
to-day are often shown by local guides where some of the 
tragedies of the persecution were conmiitted. The supersti- 
tion was finally driven away by educational enlightenment, 
and it seems astounding that it lasted as long as it did. 
Two hundred years have nearly elapsed since the craze died 
out, and it is but charitable to admit, that although many 
of the witnesses must have been corrupt and perjured, the 
majority of those connected with the cases were thoroughly 
in earnest, and that although they rejoiced at the undoing 
of the ungodly, they regretted very much being made the 
instruments of that undoino;. 



CHAPTEE III. 

IN PICTURESQUE NEW YORK. 

Some Local Errors Corrected— A Trip Down the Hudson River — The 
Last of the Mohicans — The Home of Rip Van Winkle — The Ladies 
of Vassar and their Home — West Point and its History — Sing Sing 
Prison — The Falls of Niagara — Indians in New York State. 

^IOeSIDENTS in the older States of the East are 
" ^ frequently twitted with their ignorance concern- 
insr the newer States of the West, and of the habits and 
customs of those who, having taken Horace Greeley's 
advice at various times, turned their faces toward the 
setting sun, determined to take advantage of the fertility 
of the soil, and grow up with the country of which they 
knew but little. 

It needs but a few days' sojourn in an Eastern city by 
a Western man to realize how sublimely ignorant the New 
Enslander is concerninor at least three-fourths of his native 
land. The writer was, on a recent occasion, asked, in an 
Eastern city, how he managed to get along without any of 
the comforts of civilization, and whether he did not find it 
necessary to order all of his clothing and comforts by mail 
from the East. When he replied that in the larger cities, 
at any rate, of the West, there were retail emporiums fully 
up to date in all matters of fashion and improvement, and 
caterers who could supply the latest delicacies in season 
at reasonable prices, an incredulous smile was the result, 

(47) 



48 MY ]VA77\W'J LAIVD. 

and rc^fcl w:is (^\[)l•(^HS(•(l tliai loc'il prejudice .'iiid pride 
Bhould so Uliiid !i, iii:in to (lie mcImmI iriilli. 

Yet tlM!r(! w.'is no exaggeration vvliiii(!V(!r in IIk; reply, 
as iho expei'i(!n('(!(l li-aveler knows well. N(Mt Iiei' (Chicago 
nor St. Louis are i-(!ally in tlio "VV(!sl, so far as j)oints of 
tho compass are conecirrKul, J)otii of these citicis j)cing 
hiin(lr(5(ls of miles (!ast of the geographical eeuter of Ihc; 
United Stat(\s. l>iit Ihej are both spoken of as "out 
West," and are included in the territory in which Hk; 
extremes Kaslcrn man is apt to 1hird< ])(!()[)le live on the 
c-oarsest fare, and (^lotlm tlu^mselves in Ihe roughest possi- 
])le manner. Yet the impartial and disiidcrcistc^d New 
^'oik or J»ost(»n man who visits either of t hes(M•i(i(^s sjx'ed- 
ily admits that he fre(|uenlly (inds it- didicult lo believe 
that he is not in his own much loved (tilv, so (-lose is the- 
r(!send)lanc(s in nuiny i-espcicts l)etw(i<'n tlu; business houses 
and th(5 nuithod of doing bnsirusss. l)(Mivei' is lookcid upon 
by the average Tjasterner almost, in, the light of a frontier 
city, away <>id in the Ivockies, surround(!(l by a\v"e-inspii-ing 
SCencM'y, no doubt, but, also by grizzly bears and fei'ocious 
Indians. San i'^rancisco is loo far away to be thought of 
very intelligently but a great, many peo|)l<! icgai'd that 
hom(s of wealth and elcsga.nt^e as anotluM* (sxtrome Western 
die-in-your-boots, rough-a nd-t uudde eit v. 

This ignoi'ance, for it is ignorance rath<'r than preju- 
dii^ir, i-esidts from the mania for luiropean travel, which 
wa,s form(!i'ly a charactiM'ist ic of the Atlantic. Stat(!S, but 
which of recent years has, like civilization, traveh^d West. 
The Eastern man who has mad(! money is nnu^h more likely 
to take his faniil\' on a- Mluropean tour than on a trip 
through his nativ<' country. ll(s incurs mores expense by 
crossing tlu' Atlantic, and although he adds to his store of 



ly PICTURESQUE NEW YORK. 40 

kiiowlodgo by Inivcilinj^, ho (Uk's not Icniii niiittcr of ('(iiimI 
importance to him ms if he had (-rossed tlio AiiKiric'iii 
continent and enlightened himself as to the men and 
manners in its different sections and States. 

Nor is this sectional ignorance confined, by any means, 
to tin; East. i*(!ople in the West are apt to form an 
entirely erroneous iiii])i'(!ssion of Eastern States. The 
word, "East," to them conveys an impression of dense 
population, overcrowding, and manufacturing activity. 
That there are thousands and thousands of acres of scenic 
grandeur, as well as farm lands, in some of the most 
crowded States, is not realized, and that this is the case 
will be news to many. Last y(!ar a l)arty of Western 
people wei'e travelling to New York, and, on their way, ran 
through Pennsylvania, around the pictures(juc Horse Shoe 
Curve in the Alleghenies, and along the banks of the 
romantic and historic Sus(|ueh!inna. A member of the 
party was seen to be wra[)ped in 1 hrnight iov a long time. 
He was finally asked what was worrying him. 

"I was thinking," was his reply, "iiow singular it is 
that the Republican parly lan uj) a majority of something 
like a hundred thousand at the election, and I was wonder- 
ing where all the folks came from who did the voting. I 
haven't seen a dozen houses in the last hour." 

Our friend was onl)' ]>utting into expression the thought 
which was indulged in pretty generally by the entire 
crowd. Those who were making the transcontinental trip 
for the tirst time marveled at the expanse of open coun- 
try, and the excjuisite scenery through which they passed; 
and they were wondering how they ever came to think that 
the noise of the hammer and the smoke of th(j factory 
chimney were part and parcel of the East, where; they 



50 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

knew the money, as well as the "wise men," came from. 
The object of this book being to present some of the 
prominent features of all sections of the United States, it 
is necessary to remove, as far as possible, this false im- 
pression; and in order to do so, we propose to give a brief 
description of the romantic and historic River Hudson. 
This river runs through the great State of New York, 
concerning which the greatest ignorance prevails. The 
State itself is dwarfed, in common estimation, by the 
magnitude of its metropolis, and if the Greater New York 
project is carried into execution, and the limits of New 
York City extended so as to take in Brooklyn and other 
adjoining cities, this feeling will be intensified, rather than 
otherwise. 

But "above the Harlem," to use an expression so 
commonly used when a political contest is on, there are 
thousands of square miles of what may be called "coun- 
try," including picturesque mountains, pine lands which 
are not susceptil)le of cultivation, and are preserved for 
recreation and pleasure purposes, and fertile valleys, 
divided up into homesteads and farms. 

It is through country such as this that the River 
Hudson flows. It rises in the Adirondack Mountains, 
some 300 miles from the sea, and more than 4,000 
feet above its level. It acts as a feeder and outlet for 
numerous larger and smaller lakes. At first it is a 
pretty little brook, almost dry in summer, but noisy 
and turbulent in the rainy seasons. From Schroon Lake, 
near Saratoga, it receives such a large quantity of water 
that it begins to put on airs. It ceases to be a country 
brook and becomes a small river. A little farther down, 
the bed of the river falls suddenly, producing falls of much 



IR riCTURESQUE XEW YORK. 51 

beauty, which vary in intensity and volume with the 
seasons. 

At Glens Falls the upper Hudson passes through a long 
defile, over a precipice some hundred feet long. It was 
here that Cooper received much of his inspiration, and one 
of the most startling incidents in his " The Last of the 
Mohicans" is supposed to have been enacted at the falls. 
When Troy is reached, the river takes upon itself quite 
another aspect, and runs with singular straightness almost 
direct to New York harbor. Tourists delight to sail up 
the Hudson, and they find an immense quantity of scenery 
of the most delightful character, with fresh discoveries at 
every trip. Millionaires regard the banks of the Hudson 
as the most suitable spots upon which to build country 
mansions and rural retreats. Many of these mansions are 
surrounded by exquisitely kept grounds and beautiful 
parterres, which are in themselves well worth a long 
journey to see. 

Beacon Island, a few miles below Albany, is pointed 
out to the traveler as particularly interesting, because 
four counties corner upon the river just across from it. 
The island has a history of more than ordinary interest. 
It used to be presided over by a patroon, who levied toll 
on all passing vessels. Right in the neighborhood are 
original Dutch settlements, and the descendants of the 
original immigrants hold themselves quite aloof from the 
English-speaking public. They retain the language, as 
well as the manners and customs, of Holland, and the 
tourist who strays among them finds himself, for the 
moment, distinctly a stranger in a strange land. The 
country abounds with legends and romances, and is liter- 
ally honeycombed with historic memories. 



52 MY NATIVE LAND. 

The town of fluclson, a little farther down the river, is 
interesting because it was near here that Henry Hudson 
landed in September, 1609. He w\as immediately sur- 
rounded by Indians, who gave him an immense amount of 
information, and added to his store of experiences quite a 
number of novel ones. Here is the mouth of the Catskill 
River, with the wonderful Catskill Mountains in the rear. 
It will be news, indeed, to many of our readers that in these 
wild (only partially explored) mountains there are forests 
where bears, wild cats and snakes abound in large 
numbers. 

Many people of comparative affluence reside in the 
hills, where there are hotels and pleasure resorts of the 
most costly character. During the storms of winter these 
lovers of the picturesque find themselves snowed in for 
several days at the time, and have a little experience in 
the way of frontier and exploration life. 

The sunrises in the Catskills are rendered uniquely 
beautiful by the peculiar formation of the ground, and 
from the same reason the thunder storms are often thrill- 
ino- in character and awful in their magnificence. Water- 
falls of all sizes and kinds, brooks, with scenery along the 
banks of every description, forests, meadows, and lofty 
peaks make monotony impossible, and give to the Catskill 
region an air of majesty which is not easy to describe on 
paper. 

Every visitor asks to be shown the immortalized bridge 
at Sleepy Hollow, and as he gazes upon it he thinks of 
Washington Irving' s unrivaled description of this country. 
He speedily agrees with Irving that every change of 
weather, and indeed every hour of the day, produces some 
change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, 






«^ i^^^**^ 




fl Merriory of Rip Van WirjKle. 



IN PICTURESQUE XEW YORK. 55 

and they are regarded by all the good wives far and near 
as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and 
settled they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their 
bold outlines on the clear evening sky, but, sometimes, 
when the rear of the landscape is clear and cloudless, they 
will gather a hood of gray vapors which, in the last rays 
of the setting sun, will grow up like a crown of glory. 

Here it was that Rip Van Winkle is supposed to have 
lived and slept, and astonished his old friends and neigh- 
bors, and their descendants. The path along Avhich Rip 
Van Winkle marched up the mountain, prior to his pro- 
longed sleep, is shown to the tourist, who hears at his 
hotel, in the conveyance he hires for the day, and among 
the very mountains themselves, countless local legends as 
to Rip Van Winkle, and as to the percentage of fact and 
fiction in Washington Irving's masterly production. 

If he is antiquarian enough to desire it, he can be 
shown the very spot upon which Rip Van Winkle laid him- 
self down to sleep. Local opinion differs as to the exact 
spot, but there is so much faith displayed by the people 
that no one can doubt that they are genuine in their beliefs 
and sincere in their convictions. The tourist can also be 
shown the site of the old country inn, upon the bench in 
front of which Rip Van Winkle sat and astonished the 
natives by his extraordinary conversation, and his refusal 
to believe that a generation had elapsed since he was in 
the town last. 

The chair upon which Dame Van Winkle is supposed 
to have sat, while she was berating her idle and incorrigible 
lord and master, is also shown to the visitor, and the more 
credulous ones gaze with interest upon a flagon which they 
are assured is the very one out of which Rip Van Winkle 

4 



56 MY yATIVE LAXD. 

drank. The only thing needed to complete the illusion is 
the appearance of the old dog, which the man who had so 
grievously overslept himself was sure would have recog- 
nized him, had he put in his appearance. 

It is almost impossible to outlive one's welcome in the 
Catskill Mountains, or to wear one's self out with sight 
seeing, so many are the novelties which greet the gaze. 
The Catskills are abounding with traditions quite as inter- 
esting and extraordinary as the Rip Van Winkle story. 
They were known originally as the ' ' Mountains of the 
Sky," a name given them by the Indians, who for so many 
generations held them in undisputed possession. Hyde 
Peak, the loftiest point in the Catskills, was regarded by 
the Indians as the throne of the Great Spirit, and the 
Dutch settlers who crowded out the Indians seem to have 
been almost as generous in their superstitions and legends. 
These settlers dropped the name, "Mountains of the Sk}'," 
and adopted the, to them, more euphonic one of the 
Katzbers Mountains, from which the more modern name 
has been adopted. 

The village of Catskill deserves more than a passing 
notice. It is the home of a large number of well-known 
people, including the widows of many men whose names 
are famous in history. The. old Livingston Manor was 
located near the village, and a little farther down is Barry- 
town, where the wealthy Astors have a palatial summer 
resort. A little farther down the river are two towns with 
a distinctly ancient and Dutch aspect. They were settled 
by the Dutch over two hundred years ago, and there are 
many houses still standing which were built last centur}^ 
so strongly did our forefathers construct their homes, and 
make them veritable castles and impregnable fortresses. 



IN' PICTUBESQUE XEW YORK. 57 

Another very old town on the Hudson is the celebrated 
seat of learning, Poughkeepsie. Of this, it has been said 
that there is more tuition to the square inch than in any 
other town in the world. The most celebrated of the 
educational institutions at this point is the Vassar College, 
the first ladies' seminary in the world, and the butt of so 
many jokes and sarcasms. Poughkeepsie is not quite as 
old as the hills above it, but it is exceedingly ancient. 
Here was held the celebrated State convention for the rati- 
fication of the Federal Constitution, in which Alexander 
Hamilton, Governor Clinton, and John Jay, and other men 
of immortal names took part. 

It is only comparatively recently that the first stone 
building erected in this town was torn down, to make room 
for improvements, after it had weathered storm and time 
in the most perfect manner for more than a century and a 
quarter. At Newburgh, a few miles farther south, an old 
gray mansion is pointed out to the visitor as Washing- 
ton's headquarters on several occasions during the Revolu- 
tion. Fortunately, the State has secured possession of the 
house and protects it from the hands of the vandal. 

This wonderful old house was built just a centur}' and 
a half ago. A hundred and twelve years ago Washington's 
army finally disbanded from this point, and the visitor can 
see witnm the well-preserved walls of this house the 
historical room, with its seven doors, within which Wash- 
ington and his generals held their numerous conferences, 
and in which there are still to be found almost countless 
relics of the Revolutionary War. 

While sailing on the Hudson, a glimpse is obtained of 
West Point, the great military school from which so many 
of America's celebrated generals have si'^iduated. West 



58 3IT N'ATIVE LAJSTD. 

Point comniands one of the finest river passes in the 
country. The fort and chain stretched across the river 
were captured by the British in 1777 (two years after it 
was decided that West Point should be established a mili- 
tary post), but were abandoned after Burgoyne's sur- 
render. The Continental forces then substituted stronger 
works. West Point thus has a history running right back 
to the Revolutionary War, and the ruins of Forts Clinton 
and Montgomery, which were erected in 1775, are in the 
immediate vicinity. 

There are 17G rooms in the cadet barrack. There is 
no attempt at ornamentation, and the quarters are almost 
rigid in their simplicity and lack of home comfort. Not 
only are the embryo warriors taught the rudiments of drill 
and warfare, but they are also given stern lessons in camp 
life. Each young man acts as his own chambermaid, and 
has to keep his little room absoluteh^ neat and free from 
litter and dirt of any kind. 

The West Point Chapel is of interest on account of the 
number of tablets to be found in it, immortalizing many 
of the Revolutionary heroes. A winding road leads up to 
the cemetery, where are resting the remains of many other 
celebrated generals, including Winfield Scott. The State 
Camp meets annually at Peekskill, another very ancient 
town, replete with Revolutionary ^Var reminiscences. It 
was settled in the year 1761 by a Dutch navigator, from 
whom it takes its name. Another house used by General 
Washington for headquarters is to be found near the town, 
as Avell as St. Peter's Church, in which the Father of his 
Country worshiped. 

Tarrytown is another of the famous spots on the 
Hudson. Near here Washington Irving lived, and on the 



IN PICTURESQUE NEW YORK. 59 

old Sleepy Hollow road is to be found the oldest religious 
structure in New York State. The church was built by 
the Dutch settlers in the year 1699, and close to it is the 
cemetery in which Washington Irving was interred. 
Sunnyside, Irving' s home, is a most interesting stone 
structure, whose numerous gables are covered with ivy, 
the immense mass of which has grown from a few sHps 
presented to Irving by Sir Walter Scott. 

A sadder sight to the tourist on the Hudson, but one 
which is of necessity full of interest, is the Sing Sing 
Prison, just below Croton Point. In this great State jail 
an army of convicts are kept busy manufacturing various 
articles of domestic use. The prison itself takes its name 
from the Indian word " Ossining," which means "stone 
upon stone," The village of Sing Sing, strange to say, 
contains many charming residences, and the proximity of 
the State's prison does not seem to have an}^ particular 
effect on the spirits and the ideas of those living in it. 

Still further down the Hudson is Kiverside Park, New 
York, the scene of General Grant's tomb, which overlooks 
the lower section of the river, concerning which we have 
endeavored to impart some little information of an inter- 
esting character. Of the tomb, we present a very accurate 
illustration. 

While in New York State, the tourist, whether he be 
American or European, is careful to pay a visit to the 
Niagara Falls, which have been viewed by a greater number 
of people than any other scene or wonder on the American 
continent. This fact is due, in part, to the admirable rail- 
road facilities which bring Niagara within easy riding 
distance of the great cities of the East. It is also due, 
very largely, to the extraordinary nature of the falls them- 



60 J/r XATIVE LAXD. 

selves, and to the grandeur of the scene which greets the 
eye of the spectator. 

The Kivcr Niagara is a little more than thirt3'-three 
miles lono;. In its short course it takes care of the over- 
flow of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie, and as 
it discharges the waters of these lakes into Lake Ontario^ 
it falls 334 feet, or more than ten feet to the mile. 

The rapids start some sixteen miles from Lake Erie. 
As the river channel suddenly narrows, the velocity of the 
current increases with great abruptness. The rapids are but 
a third of a mile in length, during which distance there is a 
fall of fifty-two feet. The boat caught in these rapids 
stands but a poor chance, as at the end of the torrent the 
water dashes down a cataract over 150 feet , deep. 
The Canadian Fall passes over a rocky ledge of immense 
area, and in the descent leaves a space with a watery roof, 
the space being known as the "Cave of the Winds," with 
an entrance from the Canadian side. The Canadian Fall 
has a sweep of 1,100 feet and is considerably deeper than 
the other. 

It is little more than a waste of words to endeavor to 
convey an impression of the grandeur and magnificence of 
Niagara. People have visited it from all parts of the 
world. Monarchs and princes have acknowledged that it 
exceeded their wildest expectation, and every one who has 
gazed upon it agrees that it is almost impossible to exag- 
gerate its grandeur, or to say too much concerning its 
magnitude. Even after the water has dashed wildly 150 
feet downwards, the descent continues. The river bed 
contracts in width gradually, for seven miles below the 
falls, where the whirlpool rapids are to be seen. After 
the second fall, the river seems to have exhausted its 



IN' FICTUBESQUE NEW YORK. 01 

vehemence, and runs more deliberately, cutting its channel 
deeper into the rocky bed, and dropping its sensational 
habits. 

Some writers have hazarded an opinion that, as time 
changes all things, so the day may come when Niagara 
Falls shall cease to exist. Improbable as this idea naturally 
sounds, it has some foundation in fact, for there have been 
marvelous changes in the falls during the last few genera- 
tions. About two hundred and fifty years ago a sketch 
was taken of Niagara, and a hundred years later another 
artist made a careful and apparently accurate picture. 
These two differ from one another materiall}^ and they 
also differ greatly from the appearance of the falls at the 
present time. Both of the old pictures show a third fall 
on the Canadian side. It is known that about a hundred 
vears asfo several immense fragments of rock were broken 
off the rocky ledge on the American side, and, more 
recently, an earthquake affected the appearance of the 
Canadian Fall. Certain it is, that the immense corrosive 
action of the water, and the gradual eating away of the 
rock on both the ledge and basin, has had the effect of 
changing the location of the falls, and forcing up the river 
in the direction of Lake Erie. Time alone can decide the 
momentous question as to wdiether the falls will eventually 
be so changed in appearance as to be beyond recognition. 
The lover of the beautiful and grand, and more especially 
the antiquarian, sincerely trusts that no such calamity will 
ever take place. 

The history of the Indians in New York State is a very 
interesting one. Prior to the discovery of America by 
Columbus, the section of country including a majority of 
New York State and the northern portion of Pennsylvania, 



C2 31 Y JSTATIVE LAND, 

was occupied by the Iroquois, Mohawlvs, Oneidas, Onon- 
dagas, Cayugas and Senecas. Tliese formed the historical 
Five Nations, of whom writers of the last century tell us so 
much that is of lasting importance. These tribes were 
self -governed, their rulers being selected on the hereditary 
plan. There was a federal union between them for pur- 
poses of offense and defense, and they called themselves, 
collectively, the "People of the Long House." This imag- 
inary house had an eastern door at the mouth of the 
Mohawk Eiver, and a western door at the Falls of Niagara. 

Bashfulness was not a characteristic of these old-time 
red men, who had a special name of many letters for 
themselves, which, being interpreted, meant "Men sur- 
passing all others." They trace their origin from the 
serpent-haired God, Atotarhon, and other traditions attrib- 
ute their powers of confederation and alliance to the 
legendary Hiawatha. They built frame cabins and defend- 
ed their homes with much skill. Their dress was chiefly 
made out of deer and elk hide, and relics still in existence 
show that they had good ideas of agriculture, tanning, 
pottery, and even carving. They were about 12,000 
strong, and they appear to have been the most powerful 
Indian combination prior to the arrival of the Avhite man. 

They were powerful in war as well as comparatively 
sensible in peace. Their religion was, at least, consistent, 
and included a firm belief in immortality. They maintained 
what may be termed civilized famil}' relations, and treated 
their women with proper respect. Their conduct towards 
the white men was much more friendly than might have 
been expected, and almost from the first they displayed a 
conciliatory attitude, and entered into alliances with the 
newcomers. They fought side by side with the New 



ly PICTURESQUE XEW YORK. G3 

Engflanders a^uinst the French, and the hostile Indians 
who allied with them, and in the year 1710, five of their 
sachems or leo-islators crossed the Atlantic, and were 
received with honors by the Queen of England. In diplo- 
macy they did not prove themselves in the long run as 
skillful as the newcomers, who by degrees secured from 
them the land over which they had previously exercised 
sovereign riijhts. 

The survivors of these Indians have not sunk to as low 
a level as many other tribes have done. It is not generally 
known in the West that there are on the New York 
reservations, at the present time, more than 5,000 Indians, 
including about 2,700 survivors of the once great Seneca 
tribe. 

The State of New York is about the same size as the 
Kinofdom of Enojland. It is the nineteenth State in the 
Union in point of size, possessing area of more than 49,000 
square miles, of which 1,500 square miles is covered by 
water, forming portions of the lakes. Its lake coast line 
extends 200 miles on Lake Ontario and 75 miles on Lake 
Erie. Lake Champlain flows along the eastern frontier 
for more than 100 miles, receiving the waters of Lake 
George, which has been described as the Como of America. 
The lake has a singular history. It was originally called 
by the French Canadians who discovered it, the "Lake of 
the Holy Sacrament," and it was the scene of battles and 
conflicts for over a hundred j^ears. 

The capital of the Empire State, with its population of 
such magnitude that it exceeds that of more than twenty 
important foreign nations, is Albany, which was founded 
by the Dutch in 1623, and which has since earned for itself 
the title of the "Edinburgh of America." Compared with 



G4 JMT JVATIVi: LAND. 

New York City it is dwarfed in point of population and 
commercial importance. 

Of the actual metropolis of the great Empire State it is 
impossible to speak at any length in the limited space at 
one's command. Of New York itself, Mr. Chauncey Depew 
said recently, in his forcible manner, "To-day, in the 
sisterhood of States, she is an empire in all that constitutes 
a great commonwealth. An industrious, intelligent, and 
prosperous population of 5,000,000 of people live within 
her borders. In the value of her farms and farm products, 
and in her manufacturing industries, she is the first 
State in the Union. She sustains over 1,000 newspapers 
and periodicals, has $80,000,000 invested in church 
property, and spends $12,000,000 a year on popular educa- 
tion. Upward of 300 academies and colleges fit her youth 
for special professions, and furnish opportunities for 
liberal learning and the highest culture, and stately edifices 
all over the State, dedicated to humane and benevolent 
objects, exhibit the permanence and extent of her organized 
charities. There are $600,000,000 in her savings banks, 
$300,000,000 in her insurance companies, and $700,000,000 
in the capital and loans of her State and National banks. 
Six thousand miles of railroads, costing $000,000,000, have 
penetrated and developed every accessible corner of the 
State, and maintain, against all rivalry and competition, 
her commercial prestige." 



CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY. 

The Geographical Center of the United States and its Location West 
of the Mississippi River — The Center of Population — History of 
Fort Rilej— The Gallant "Seventh"— Early Troubles of Kansas- 
Extermination of the Buffalo — But a Few Survivors out of Many 

Millions. 

mANSAS is included by most people in the list of 
Western States ; by many it is regarded as in the 
extreme West. If the Pilgrim Fathers had been told that 
the haven of refuge the}^ had selected would, within two or 
three hundred years, be part of a great English-speaking 
nation with some 70,000,000 of inhabitants, and with its 
center some 1,500 miles westward, they would have listened 
to the story with pardonable incredulity, and would have 
felt like invoking condemnation upon the head of the 
reckless prophet who was addressing them. 

Yet Kansas is to-day in the very center of the United 
States. This is not a printer's error, nor a play upon words, 
much as the New Englander may suspect the one or the 
other. There was a time when the word "West" was 
used to apply to any section of the country a day's journey 
on horseback from the Atlantic Coast, For years, and 
even generations, everything west of the Allegheny 
Mountains or of the Ohio Eiver was " Out West." Even 
to-day it is probable that a majority of the residents in 
the strictly Eastern States regard anything west of the 
Mississippi River as strictly Western. 

(65) 



(}6 MY ITATIVE LAND. 

There is no doubt that -vvhen Horace Greeley told the 
young men of the country' to "Go West and grow up with 
the country," he used the term in its common and not its 
strictly geographical sense, and many thousand youths, 
who took the advice of the philosopher and statesman, 
stopped close to the banks of the Mississippi Eiver, and 
have ofrown rich in their new homes. It cannot be too 
generally realized, however, that the Mississippi Eiver 
slowly wends its way down to the Gulf of Mexico well 
within the eastern half of the greatest nation in the world. 
At several points in the circuitous course of the Father of 
Waters, the distance between the river and the Atlantic 
Ocean is about 1,000 miles. In an equal number of points 
the distance to the Pacific Ocean is 2,000 miles, showing 
that whatever may be said of the tributaries of the Missis- 
sippi River, and especially of its gigantic tributary the 
Missouri, the Mississippi is an Eastern and not a Western 
river. 

We give an illustration of the point which competent 
surve^'ors and engineers tell us is the exact geographical 
center of the United States proper. The monument 
standing in the center of this great country is surrounded 
by an iron railing, and is visited again and again by 
tourists, who find it diflicult to believe the fact that a point 
apparently so far western is really central. The center of 
the United States has gone west with the absorption of terri- 
tory, and the Louisiana purchase, the centenary of which 
we shall shortly celebrate, had a great effect on the location. 

The center of population has moved less gpasmodically, 
but with great regularity. A hundred years ago the City 
of Baltimore was the center of population, and it was not 
until the middle of the centurv that Ohio boasted of 



/xY THE CEXTER OF THE COUNTRY. 07 

owning the population center. For some twenty years 
it remained near Cincinnati, but during the '80s it went 
as far as Columbus, Indiana, where it was at the last 
Government census. At the present time it is probably 
twenty or thirty miles west of Columbus, and in the near 
future Fort Riley will be the population, as well as the 
geographical, center. 

Fort Riley is an interesting spot for civilian and soldier 
alike. Having been selected by the Government as the 
permanent training school for the two mounted branches 
of the service — the cavalry and light artillery — its 21,000 
acres have been improved at lavish expense. It seems 
really remarkable that so metropolitan a bit of ground 
could be found out o'n the plains, where, though civiliza- 
tion is making rapid strides, and the luxuries of wealth are 
being acquired by the advancing population, it is unusual 
to find macadamized streets and buildings that can harbor a 
regiment and still not be crowded. Yet such are some of 
the characteristics of Fort Riley Reservation, and the 
newness of it all is the best evidence of the interest the 
War Department has taken in its development. Many of 
the recently erected buildings would grace the capital 
itself. Nearly $1,000,000 have been expended in the past 
four years in new structures, all of magnesia limestone, 
and built along the lines of the most approved modern 
architecture, and of a character which insures scores of 
years of usefulness. 

The fort is situated on the left bank of the Kansas 
River, near the junction of the Republican and Smoky 
Hill Forks. It was first kid out in 1852, and has ever 
since been one of the leading Western posts. Located, 
though it is, far out on the Kansas prairies, it has, partic- 



G8 3IY XATIVE LAXD. 

ularly in late years, been fully in touch Avith the social life 
of the East, through the addition of now officers and the 
interchange of post courtesies. 

The post, as it stands to-day, consists of officers' 
quarters, artillery and cavalry barracks, administration 
buildings, sheds, hospital, dispensary, etc., scattered over 
150 acres of ground. The Kansas River is formed just 
southwest of it by the union of the Smok}' Ilill and Eepub- 
lican Forks, and the topography for practice and sight- 
seeing could not be surpassed in the State. Five miles 
of macadamized streets, 150,000 feet of stone and gravel 
walks, six miles of sewers, four miles of water and steam 
heating pipes, leading to every room of each of the sixty 
buildings, make up the equipment, which is, of course, of 
the highest quality throughout. All the stone is quarried 
on the reservation, and is of lasting variety, and makes 
buildings which bear a truly substantial ap]iearauce. The 
Government has an idea toward jiermanoncy in its 
improvements. 

The history of Fort Eiley has been one of vicissitudes. 
When it was laid out in 185^, it was at first called Camp 
Center, but was changed to its present name by order of 
the War Department in honor of General B. C. Riley. In 
1855, the fort suffered from Asiatic cholera, and Major E. 
A. Ogden, one of the original commissioners who laid out 
the reservation, who was staying there, nursed the soldiers 
with a heroic attachment to duty, and himself fell a victim 
to the disease. A handsome monument marks his resting 
place. He was a true soldier hero, and his name is still 
spoken in reverence by the attaches of the post. 

Another notable feature of the reservation is the dis- 
mantled rock wall to the east of the fort, which is all that 



IjV the center of the country. G9 

now remains of the once ambitious capitol building of the 
State of Kansas. It has a strange liistory, being the 
* 'Pawnee House," in which the Territorial Legislature met 
in the early ante-bellum days, confident of protection by 
the soldiers from the roaming Indian bands infesting the 
prairies. 

A famous dweller at the fort for two decades was old 
Comanche, the only living creature to escape from the 
Custer massacre on the side of the Government. lie was 
the horse ridden by an officer in that memorable fight, and 
by miracle escaped, after having seven balls fired into him. 
He was found roaming over the prairie, after the massacre, 
and was ordered put on the retired list, and stationed at 
Fort Rile}', Avhere for twenty years he was petted and 
cared for, but never ridden. His onl}^ service was to be 
led in processions of ceremony, draped in mourning. Now 
that he is dead, his body has been preserved with the 
taxidermist's best skill, and is one of the State's most 
noted relics. 

The fort has been of unusual interest of late. In 
addition to the maneuvers of the school for mounted 
service, in which the soldiers have been regularly drilled, 
engaging in sham battles, throwing up mimic fortifications, 
fording the rivers, etc., the War Signal Service has been 
conducting some interesting experiments. The Signal 
Service has had its huge balloon, which Avas exhibited at 
the World's Fair, at the post, and its ascensions and the 
operations put in practice have proved very attractive and 
instructive. 

The new riding hall, or cavalry practice building, makes 
it possible for the training school to go on the year round, 
regardless of the weather. It has an open floor space 300 



70 MY X ATI YE LAND. 

feet long and 100 feet wide, making it an admirable room 
for the purpose. 

The Fort Rile}' troops are always called on when there 
is trouble in the West. They have put down a dozen 
Indian uprisings on the plains, and only a few months ago 
were sent for to keep order in Chicago during the railway 
strikes. From this trip, four old members of the post 
were brought back dead, having met their fate in the 
burstin<r of a caisson, v\hile marchins; alono- a paved street. 

The fort is the great pleasure resort of Kansas. The late 
commanding officer, Colonel Forsyth, now General Forsjrth, 
is much given to hospitality, and the people of the State 
take great pride in the post's advancement and its victories. 
During the summer, on several occasions, the national 
holidays especially, the soldiers "receive," and excursion 
trains bring hundreds of visitors from every direction, 
who are delighted to feast their eyes on real cannon, 
uniforms and shoulder straps. They are entertained 
royally. Drills, salutes, sham battles and parades, occupy 
every hour of the day, and in the evening the drill floor 
becomes a dancing place for all who enjoy the delights of 
a military ball. 

The history of the fort has been, in a measure, that of 
the Seventh Cavalry, which for nearl}^ two decades has 
had its residence there, and become identified with the 
spot. The Seventh Cavalry dates its glory from before 
the days of the intrepid Custer, whose memory it cher- 
ishes. It has taken part in scores of Indian battles — 
indeed, there has not, for j^ears, been an uprising in the 
"West in which it has not done duty. Its last considerable 
encounter was at Wounded Knee and Drexel Mission, 
w'here the Custer massacre was in a des^ree avensed. Here 



I^^ THE CENTER OF THE COUNTR Y. 73 

it lo.st twenty-four of its members, and a magnificent 
o^ranite monument has been erected at the fort to their 
memory. It bears the names of those who fell, and tells 
briefly the story of their bravery. 

In the Wounded Knee battle, on the plains of Dakota, 
during the closing days of 1891, the four troops of the 
regiment were treacherously surprised by the Sioux, and 
because, after the attack, Colonel Forsyth ordered a charge, 
resulting in the killing of many of the savages, he was 
suspended by his .superior officer, General Miles, for dis- 
obedience of orders, which were not to fire on the enemy. 
An investigation, however, amply justified his action, and 
he was reinstated in charge of his post as before. Early 
in November, 1894, on the promotion of General McCook 
to be Major General, Colonel Forsyth stepped up to the 
Brigadier Generalship, and his place at Fort Riley will be 
taken by Colonel Sumner. There is a rumor, however, in 
army circles, that the old Seventh will be stationed in the 
far Northwest, and the Fifth Cavalry will succeed it as 
resident regiment here. The post has become so closely 
identified with the fortunes of the former regiment that it 
will seem strange to have any other troops call it home. 

There are usually at the fort three squadrons of 
cavalry, of four troops each, and five batteries of light 
artillery, engaged in the maneuvers of the school for 
mounted service, which has its headquarters for the entire 
army here. The principal object of this school is instruc- 
tion in the combined operations of the cavalry and light 
artillery, and this object is kept steadily in view. The 
troops of each arm form a sub-school, and are instructed 
nine months in the year in their own arm, preparatory to 
the three months of combined operations. Thus the 



74 .Vr XATIVi: LAN'D. 

biitlorios ;iro 1'roiimMillv pracliood in roiul marching iu rapid 
jraits; tho Kansas Kivor is ot'ton furilixl : rouffli hills are 
clinibod at "double quick,'' and guns are brought to action 
on Jill sorts o( dillicuU ground, with the result that, Avhen 
the combined operations begin, the batteries may be 
maneuvered over all kinds of obstacles. 

Among the [)lans o'( the future is one, whifh was a 
favorite with Cieneral Sheridaw, of m;d<ing Fort Kilev the 
horse-furnishing headiiuarters for the entire army. The 
location being so central, it insures the nearest approach 
to perfect acclimation of animnls sent to any part of the 
Union. Two jilans are btfing contemplated for the accom- 
plishment oi this lUiject. (>ne is to make it a breeding 
station : the other is to simply make it a purchasing station, 
which shall buy of the farmers of the AVest the horses 
needed by the army, and train the animals for regular use 
before semiing them to the various jHists. 

Present plans alsii include an increa!*e iu the ninubcr of 
sohliers statiouiul at Fort l\iley to r>.000. If the projiosed 
increase in the standing aruiy is carried out, there may be 
more than that. The (lovernment evidently has faith in 
the location of the fort. While it has abandoned and con- 
solidated other stations, it has all the time been increasing 
its expenditures here, and the estimates for the next year 
aggregate expenditures of over $500,000, provided the 
Appropriation Con\mittee tU>es its iluty. There are plans 
of still further beautifying the grouiuls, ami the addition 
of more turnpikes and macadamized roads. 

The State of Kansas, and especially Geary and Eilev 
Comities, in which the fort is situated, reap a cimsiderable 
bcitctlt from its location. The perishable produce of the 
couunissary department comes ivowx the country around. 



IX THE CEyTER OF THE COUyTRY. 75 

Hundreds of horses are bought at round prices, while the 
soldier trade has sent Junction City, four miles west, 
ahead of all competitors in Central Kansas for volume of 
business and population. Naturally, Kansas is glad to see 
Fort Riley a permanency, and hopes that it may be made 
the Government's chief Western post. 

Kansas has been spoken of as the most wonderful 
State in the Union, and in many respects it is fully entitled 
to its reputation in this respect. It has had enough dis- 
couragements and drawbacks to ruin half a dozen States, 
and nothing but the phenomenal fertility of the soil, and 
the push and go of the pioneers who claim the State as 
their own, has enabled Kansas to withstand difficulties 
and to sail buoyantly through waves of danger into harbors 
of refuge. In its early daj^s, border warfare hindered 
development and drove many most desirable settlers to 
more peaceful spots. Since then the prefix "Bleeding" 
has again been used repeatedly in connection with the 
State, because of the succession of droughts and plagues 
of grasshoppers and chinch bugs, which have imperiled its 
credit and fair name. But Kansas remains to-day a great 
State, with a magniricent future before it. The fertility of 
the soil is more than phenomenal. Kansas corn is known 
throughout the world for its excellency, and at the World's 
Fair in 1893 it took highest awards for both the white and 
yellow varieties. In addition to this, it secured the gold 
medal for the best corn in the world, as well as the highest 
awards for red winter wheat flour, sorghum sugar and 
apples. Indeed, Kansas soil produces almost anything to 
perfection, and the State, thanks largely to works of irriga- 
tion in the extreme western section, is producing larger 
quantities of indispensable agricultural products every year. 



7G MY XATIVE LAND, 

The very motto of the State indicates the early troiiljles 
through which it went, the literal interpretation being "To 
the stars (and stripes) through difficulties." The State 
is generally known now as the "Sunflower State," and for 
many years the sword has given place to the plowshare. 
But the very existence of Fort Eiley shows that this was 
not always the condition of affairs. Early in the Eighteenth 
Century, French fur-traders crossed over into Kansas, and, 
later on, Spanish explorers were struck with the possibilities 
of the fertile plains. Local Indian tribes were then at war, 
but a sense of common danger caused the antagonistic red 
men to unite, and the white immigrants were massacred in a 
body. After the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, 
and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of thirty years later, the 
slave issue became a very live one in Kansas, and for some 
time the State was in a condition bordering upon civil 
war. The convention of 1859, at Wyandotte, settled this 
difficulty, and placed Kansas in the list of anti-slavery 
States. 

Some ten years ago, after Kansas had enjoyed a period 
of the most unique prosperity, from an agricultural stand- 
point, the general impression began to prevail that the 
State was destined to become almost immediately the 
greatest in the nation. Corn fields were platted out into 
town sites, and additions to existing cities were arranged 
in every direction. For a time it appeared as though there 
was little exaggeration in the extravagant forecast of future 
greatness. Town lots sold in a most remarkable manner, 
many valuable corners increasing in value ten and twent}-- 
fold in a single night. The era of railroad building was 
coincident with the town boom craze, and Eastern people 
were so anxious to obtain a share of the enormous profits 



IX TUB CEXTER OF THE COUXTRY. 11 

to be made by speculating in Kansas town lots, that 
money was telegraphed to agents and banks all over the 
State, and options on real estate were sold very much on 
the plan adopted by traders in stocks and bonds in AYall 
Street. 

The greed of some, if not most, of the speculators, soon 
killed the goose which laid the golden egg. The boom 
burst in a most pronounced manner. People who had lost 
their heads found them again, and many a farmer who had 
abandoned agriculture in order to get rich by trading in 
lots, went back to his plow and his chores, a sadder and 
wiser, although generally poorer, man. Many hundreds of 
thousands of dollars changed hands during the boom. 
Exactly who "beat the game," to use the gambler's 
expression, has never been known. Certain it is, that for 
every man in Kansas who admits that he made money out 
of the excitement and inflation, there are at least fifty who 
say that the boom well-nigh ruined them. 

Kansas is as large as Great Britain, larger than the 
whole of New England combined, and a veritable empire 
in itself. It is a State of magnificent proportions, and of 
the most unique and delightful history. Three and a half 
centuries ago, Coronado, the great pioneer prospector and 
adventurer, hunted Kansas from end to end in search of 
the precious metals which he had been told could be found 
there in abundance. He Avandered over the immense 
stretch of prairies and searched along the creek bottoms 
without finding what he sought. He speaks in his records 
of "mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and weari- 
some and bare of wood. All the way the plains are as full 
of crooked-ljack oxen as the mountain Serena iu Spain 
is of sheep."' 



78 MY XATIVE LAND. 

These crooked-back oxen were of course buffaloes, or^ 
more correct!}^ speaking, species of the American bison. 
No other continent was ever blessed witli a more mao-nifi- 
cent and varied selection of beasts and birds in forests and 
prairies than was North America. Kansas in particular 
Avas fortunate in the possession of thousands of herds of 
buffaloes. Now it has none, except a few in a domesticated 
state, Avitli their old regal glory departed forever. "When we 
read the reports of travelers and trappers, written little 
more than half a centurv ao;o, and treatinsr of the enormous 
buffalo herds that covered the prairies as far as the eye 
could reach, we wonder whether these descriptions can be 
real, or whether they are not more in the line of fables 
and the outgrowth of a too vivid imagination. 

If, thirty years ago, some wiseacre had come forward 
and predicted that it would become necessary to devise 
means for the protection of this enormous amount of game, 
he would have been laughed out of countenance. Yet this 
extraordinary condition of affairs has actually come to pass. 
Entire species of animals which belonged to the magnifi- 
cent fauna of North America are already extinct or are 
rapidly becoming so. The sea-cow is one of these animals : 
the last specimens of which were seen in 17()7 and 17G8. 
The Californian sea-elephant and the sea-dog of the West 
Indies have shared a like fate. Not a trace of these 
animals has been found for a long time. The extinction 
of the Labrador duck and the great auk have often been 
deplored. Both of these birds may be regarded as practi- 
callv extinct. The last skeleton of the great auk was 
sold for $600, the last skin for $650, and the last egg 
brought the fabulous sum of $1,500. 

Last, not least, the American bison is a thing of the past f 



IX THE CEXTER OF THE COUXTRY. 79 

It has been historically proven that at the time of the 
discovery of America, the buffalo herds covered the entire 
enormous territory from Pennsylvania to Oregon and 
Nevada, and down to Mexico, and thirty years ago the 
larofe emio^rant caravans which traveled from the Eastern 
States across the Mississippi to the gold fields of California, 
met with herds of buffaloes, not numbering thousands, but 
hundreds of thousands. The construction trains of the 
first Pacific Railroad w^ere frequently interrupted and 
delayed by wandering buffalo herds. 

To-day the United States may be traversed from end 
to end, and not a single buffalo w-ill be seen, and nothing 
remains to even indicate their presence but the deep, well- 
trodden paths which they made years ago. Rain has not 
been able to wash away these traces, and they are counted 
among the "features" of the prairies, where the bisons once 
roamed in undisturbed glory. It was a difficult task for the 
Government to gather the last remnants, about 150 to 200 
head, to stock Yellowstone Park with them, and to prevent 
their complete extinction. 

Undoubtedly, the buffalo was the most stupid animal 
of the prairies. In small flocks, he eluded the hunter well 
enough ; but in herds of thousands, he cared not a w^hit for 
the shooting at the flanks of his army. Any Indian or 
trapper, stationed behind some shrubs or earth hill, could 
kill dozens of buffalo without disturbing the herd by the 
swish of the arrow, the report of the rifle, or the dying 
groans of the wounded animals. A general stampede 
ensued at times, which often led the herd into morasses, 
or the quick-sand of the rivers, where they perished 
miserably. The destruction was still greater when the 
leader of the herd came upon some yawning abyss. Those 



80 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

behind drove him down into the deep, and the entire herd 
followed blindly, only to be dashed to death. 

The very stupidity of the bison helped to exterminate 
the race, Avhere human agency would have seemed well 
nigh inadequate. 

Amono^ the lar^e o^ame of the continent, the bison was 
the most important, and furnished the numerous Indian 
tribes not only with abundant food, but other things as 
well. They covered their tents with the thick skins, and 
made saddles, boats, lassoes and shoes from them. Folded 
up, they used them as beds, and wore them around their 
shoulders as a protection against the winter's cold. Spoons 
and other utensils for the household could be made from 
their hoofs and horns, and their bones were shaped into all 
kinds of arms and weapons. The life and existence of the 
prairie Indian depended almost entirely upon that of the 
buffalo. There is no doubt that the Indians killed many 
buffaloes, but while the damage may have been great, 
there was not much of a reduction noticeable in their 
numbers, for the buffalo cosv is an enormous breeder. 

Conditions were changed, however, when the white 
man arrived with his rifle, settled down on the shores of 
the Atlantic Ocean, and began to drive the aborigines of 
the American continent further and further West. With 
this crowdiuo* back of the Indians beo;an that also of the 
buffalo, and the destruction of the latter was far more 
rapid than that of the former. 

It was about the middle of the Seventeenth Century 
when the first English colonists climbed the summits of the 
Allegheny Mountains. Enormous herds of buffalo grazed 
then in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Tennessee, and in the famous blue arass regions of 



IN' THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY. 81 

Kentucky. How fast the buffaloes became extermiuated 
may best be illustrated by the fact that, at the beginning 
of the present century, the bison had entirely disappeared 
from the eastern banks of the Mississippi. A few isolated 
herds could be found in Kentucky in 1792. In 1814 the 
animal had disappeared in Indiana and Illinois. When the 
white settlers crossed the Mississippi, to seek connection 
with the territories on the Pacific coast, the buffalo 
dominion, once so vast, decreased from year to year, and 
finally it was split in two and divided into a northern and 
southern strip. The cause of this division was the Cali- 
fornia overland emigration, the route of which followed 
the Kansas and Platte Rivers, cutting through the center 
of the buffalo regions. These emigrants killed hundreds 
of thousands of animals, and the division became still 
greater after the completion of the Union Pacific line and 
the settlement of the adjacent districts. 

The buffaloes of the southern strip were the first to be 
exterminated, particularly when the building of the Atchi- 
son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad facilitated entrance to 
the southern range. 

Aside from the pleasure and excitement from a buffalo 
hunt, the yield was a rich one, and troops of hunters 
swarmed over the Western prairies ; buffalo hunting 
became an industry which gave employment to thousands 
of people. But human avarice knew no bounds, and 
massacred senselessly the finest game with which this 
continent was stocked. The dimensions to which this 
industry grew may best be guessed when it is stated that 
in 1872 more than 100,000 buffaloes were killed near Fort 
Dodge in three months. During the summer of 1874, an 
expedition composed of sixteen hunters killed 2,800 



82 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

buffaloes, and during that same season one young trapper 
boasted of having killed 3,000 animals. The sight of such 
a slaughter scene was gruesome to behold. Colonel Dodge 
writes of it: "During the fall of 1873 I rode across the 
prairie, where a year ago I had hunted several herds. At 
the time we enjoyed the aspect of a myriad of buffaloes, 
which were grazing peacefully over the prairies. Now wc 
rode past myriads of decaying cadavers and skeletons, 
which filled the air with an insufferable stench. The broad 
plain which, a 3'ear ago, had teemed with animals, was 
nothing more than a dead, foul desert.'' 

]\Ir. Blackmore, another traveler, who went through 
Kansas at about the same time, says that he counted, on 
four acres of ground, no less than sixty-seven buffalo 
carcasses. As was to be expected, this wholesale and, 
indeed, wanton slaughter brought its own reward and 
condemnation. The price of buffalo skins dropped to 
oO cents, although as much as $-'>.00 had been paid regularly 
for them. Moreover, as the number of animals killed 
was greater than could be removed, the decaying carcasses 
attracted wolves, and even Avorse foes, to the farmyard, 
and terrible damage to cattle resulted. 

The Indians also were disturbed. "Poor Lo'' com- 
plained of the wanton and senseless killing of the principal 
means of his sustenance, and when the white man with a 
laugh ignored these complaints, the Indians got on the 
war-path, attacked settlements, killed cattle and stole pro- 
visions, thus giving rise to conflicts, which devoured not 
only enornu)us sums of money, but cost the lives of 
thousands of people. When the locust plague swept over 
the fields of Kansas and destroyed the entire crop, the 
settlers themselves hungered for the buffalo meat of 



IX THE CEXTER OF THE COUXTBY. 83 

which they had robbed themselves, and vengeance came in 
more ways than one. 

The extermination of the buffalo of the southern range 
was completed about 1875 ; to the bisons of the northern 
range were given a few years' grace. But the same scenes 
which were enacted in the South, repeated themselves in the 
North, and the white barbarians were not satisfied until they 
had killed the last of the noble game in 1885. When the 
massacre was nearly over, a few isolated herds were col- 
lected and transported to Yellowstone Park, where they 
have increased to about 400 during the last few years, 
protected by the hunting hiAvs, which are strictly enforced. 
With the exception of a very few specimens, tenderly 
nursed by some cattle raisers in Kansas and Texas, and 
in some remote parts of British America, these are the 
last animals of a species, which two decades ago wandered 
in millions over the vast prairies of the West. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MORMONS AND THEIR AVIVES. 

The Pilgrimage Across the Bad Lands to Utah — Incidents of the 
March — Success of the New Colony — Religious Persecutions — 
Murder of an Entire Family — The Curse of Polygamy — An Ideal 
City — Humors of Bathing in Great Salt Lake. 

BBOUT half a century ago one of the most remarkable 
pilgrimages of modern times took place. Across 
what was then, not inaptly, described by writers as an arid 
and repulsive desert, there advanced a procession of the most 
unique and awe-inspiring character. History tells us of 
bands of crusaders Avho tramped across Europe in order to 
rescue the Holy Land from tyrants and invaders. On that 
occasion, all sorts and conditions of men were represented, 
from the religious enthusiast, to the ignorant bigot, and 
from the rich man who was sacriticiug his all in the cause 
that he believed to be right, to the tramp and ne'er-do-well, 
who had allied himself with that cause for revenue only. 
But the distance traversed by the crusaders six or seven 
hundred years ago Avas insignificant compared with the dis- 
tance traversed by the pilgrims to whom Ave are referring. 
In addition to this, the country to be crossed presented 
difficulties of a far more startling and threatening character. 
There was before them a promised land in the extreme 
distance, but there intervened a tract of land which 
seemed as impassable a barrier as the much talked-of, but 
seldom inspected, Chinese Wall of old. There was a region 

(S4) 



THE MORMOXS AXD THEIB WIVES. 85 

of desolation and deatli, extending from the Sierra Nevadas 
to the border lines of Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone 
to the Colorado Rivers. A profane writer once suggested 
that the same Creator could hardly have brought into 
existence this arid, barren and inhospitable region and the 
fertile ].)laius and beautiful mountains which surrounded it 
on all sides. 

Civilization and irrigation have destroyed the most 
awful characteristics of this region, but at the time to 
which we are referring, it was about as bad from the 
standpoint of humanity and human needs as could well be 
imagined. Here and there, there Avere lofty mountains 
and deep canons, as there are now, but the immense plains, 
which occupy the bulk of the land, were unwatcred and 
uncared for, giving forth volumes of a penetrating alkali 
dust, almost as injurious to human flesh as to human attire. 
Here and there, there were, of course, little oases of 
comparative verdure, which were regarded by unfortunate 
travelers not only as havens of refuge, but as little heavens 
in the midst of a sea of despair. The trail across the 
desert, naturally, ran through as many as possible of these 
successful efforts of nature to resist decay, and along the 
trail there Averc to be found skeletons and ghastly remains 
of men whose courage had exceeded their ability, and Avho 
had succumbed to huno-er and thirst in this o-reat, lonesome 
desert. 

That no one lived in this region it would seem super- 
fluous to state. Occasionally a band of Indians would 
traverse it in search of hunting grounds beyond, though, 
as a general rule, the red man left the country severely 
alone, and made no effort to dispute the rights of the 
coyotes and buzzards to sole possession. 



8(5 MY NATIVE LAJSFD. 

Along the trail iiieutioned, there advanced at the period 
to which we have referred, a procession which we have 
likened, in some respects, to the advance of the crusaders 
in mediaeval days. Those who happened to see it pass 
described this cavalcade as almost beyond conception. 
The first impression from a distance was that an immense 
herd of buffalo were advancing and creating the cloud of 
dust, which seemed to rise from the bare ground and mount 
to the clouds. As it came nearer, and the figures became 
more discernible, it was seen that the caravan was headed 
by a band of armed horsemen. The animals were jaded and 
fatigued, and walked with their heads low down and their 
knees bent out of shape and form. Their riders seemed as 
exhausted as the animals themselves, and they carried their 
dust-begrimed guns in anything but military fashion. 
Behind them came hundreds, nay, thousands, of wagons, 
of all shapes and builds, some of them entirely open and 
exposed, and others protected more or less by canvas tilts. 
These wagons seemed to stretch back indefinitely into 
space, and even when there was no undulation of the 
surface to obstruct the view, the naked eye could not deter- 
mine to any degree the length of the procession. Near 
the front of the great cavalcade was a wagon different in 
build and appearance to any of the others. It was hand- 
somely and even gaudily decorated, and it was covered in 
so carefidly that its occupants could sleep and rest as 
secure from annoyance by the dust as though they were in 
bed at home. 

Instead of two broken-down horses, six well-fed and 
well-watered steeds were attached to the wagon, and it was 
evident that no matter how short had been the supply of 
food and water, the horses and occupants of this particular 



THE MORMOXS AXD THEIR WIVES. 87 

conveyance had had everything they desired. The occu- 
pant of this wagon was a man who did not looli to be more 
than thirty years of age, but whose face and manner 
indicated that he was in the habit of being obeyed rather 
than obeying. A great portion of his time was occupied 
in reading from a large velhun-bound book, but from time 
to time he hiid it on one side to settle disputes which had 
arisen among some of his ten thousand followers, or to 
issue orders of the most emphatic and dogmatic character. 

This man was Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph 
Smith, and the chosen Prophet of the Mormons, who Avere 
marching across the desert in search of the promised land, 
which they were informed had been set aside for their 
purpose by the Ruler of the Universe. 

We need not follow the fortunes and misfortunes of 
the zealous, if misguided, men and families who followed 
their leader across the great unwatered and almost unex- 
plored desert. No one knows how many fell by the 
wayside and succumbed to hunger, exhaustion or disease. 
The bulk of the column, however, persevered in the march, 
and, through much sadness and tribulation, finally arrived 
at a country which, while it was not then by any means up 
to expectation or representation, at least presented facilities 
and opportunities for living. When the great valleys of 
Utah were reached, men who a few months before had 
been strong and hardy, but wdio now were lank and lean, 
fell on their knees and offered up thanksgiving for their 
deliverance, while the exhausted women and children sought 
repose and rest, which had been denied them for so many 
long, wearisome days. 

But there was no time to be wasted in rejoicings over 
achievements, or regrets over losses. The virgin acres 



88 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

before them were theirs for the askmg, or rather taking, 
and the Mormon colony set to work at once to parcel out 
the land and to commence the building of homes. "What- 
ever may be said against the religious ideas of these 
pilgrims, too much credit cannot be given them for the 
business-like energy which characterized their every move- 
ment. A site was selected for what is now known as 
Salt Lake City. Broad streets were laid out, building 
plans and rules adopted, and every arrangement made for 
the construction of a handsome and symmetrical city. 
Houses, streets and squares appeared almost by magic, and 
in a very few weeks quite a healthy town was built up. 
Those who in more Eastern regions had learned different 
trades were set to work at callings of their choice, and for 
those who were agriculturally disposed, farms were mapped 
out and reserved. 

Fortunately for the newcomers, industry was a watch- 
word among them, and a country which had been up to 
that time a stranger to the plow and shovel was drained 
and ditched, and very speedily planted to corn and wheat. 
So fertile did this so-called arid ground prove to be, that 
one year's crop threw aside all fears of further poverty, and 
prosperity began to reign supreme. Had the Mormons 
confined themselves to work, aud had abandoned extreme 
religious and social ideas, impossible in an enlightened age 
and country, they would have risen long before this into an 
impregnable position in every respect. 

But polygamy, hitherto restrained aud checked by 
laws of Eastern States and Territories, was now indulged in 
indiscriminately. The more wives a member of the 
Mormon church possessed, the greater was his standing in 
the community. The man who had but two or three wives 




-4 



THE MORMOyS AXD THEIR WIVES. 91 

was censured for iiis want of enthusiasm, and lie was fre- 
quently fined heavily by the church, which was not above 
levying fines, and thus licensing alleged irregularities. 
Some of the elders had more than a hundred wives each, 
and these Avere maintained under relations of a most 
peculiar eliaracter. 

At first the polygamous tenents of the church did not 
cause much comment on the outside, because the Mormons 
were so shut off from civilization that they seemed to 
occupy a little world of their own, and no one claimed the 
right to censure or interfere with them. Gradually, how- 
ever, there became a shortage of marriageable women, and 
this resulted in mvsterious raids beiuo- made on neifjhborino; 
settlements. Wanderers upon the mountains spoke with 
horror of mysterious tribes of men who wandered around 
engaged in acts of plunder, and from time to time strange 
women appeared in the towns and settlements. 

Like so many other bands of persecuted men who had 
fled from their oppressors in search of liberty, the early 
Mormons soon adopted the tactics of which they had com- 
plained so bitterly. The man who refused to obey the 
orders of the church, or who was in any way rebellious, 
was apt to disappear from his home without warning or 
explanation. He was not arrested or tried ; he was simply 
spirited away, and no mark or sign proclaimed his last 
resting place. The Danite Band, or the Avenging Angels, 
came into existence, and some of their terrible deeds have 
contributed dark pages to the history of our native land. 

It is not to be supposed that acts such as these were 
approved indiscriminately by the newcomers. Occasionally 
a mild protest would be uttered, but it seemed as though 
the very walls had ears, for even if a man in the bosom of 

6 



02 MY NxVTIVE LAXD. 

his family criticised the conduct of the church, his doom 
appeared to be sealed, and he generally disappeared within 
a few days. Occasionally a family would attempt to escape 
from Utah, in order to avoid compliance Avith laws and 
orders which they believed to be criminal in character, as 
Avcll as contrary to their preconceived notions of domestic 
happiness and right. To make an attempt of this character 
Avas to invite death. In the first })lace, it Avas almost 
impossible to traverse the surrounding mountains and 
deserts, and even if these natural obstacles Avere overcome, 
the hand of the avenger Avas constantly uplifted against 
the fugitives, who Avere blotted off the face of the earth, on 
the theory that dead men tell no tales. 

On one occasion, a man left his home in Utah in the 
Avay described, because he declined to bring home a second 
Avife. Brigham Young, in the course of his pastoral calls, 
entered the comfortable house occupied by the family, and 
called upon the nuui to introduce to him his Avives. He 
Avas one of the fcAV men Avho, Avhile in every other respect 
a zealous Mormon, had declined to break up his family 
relations by bringing a young Avife into his home. The 
mother of his children informed the Prophet with nuich 
vehemence of this fact, and in Avords nun-e noble than 
discreet assured him that no effort of his could disturb the 
domestic relations of the house, or make her husband 
untrue to voavs he had taken tAventy years before. 

The Prophet Avas too astounded to lose his temper, but 
turning to the happy husband and father, he told him in 
stentorian tones that unless Avithin one month he complied 
Avith the orders of the church, it Avould have been better 
for him had he never been born, or had he died Avhile on 
the terrible march across the Bad Lands and the alkali 



THE MOliMOXS Ayn THE III WIVES. 03 

desert. That the Prophet was in earnest was evidenced by 
the arrival the foHowing day of some of his minions, who 
brought with them more explicit directions, as well as the 
names of certain young women to whom the man must be 
''sealed" or "married" within the time mentioned l)y 
Young. 

No idea of complying with this order ever occurred to 
the head of the house. lie knew that his wife would far 
rather die than l^e dishonored, and he himself was per- 
fectly willing to sacrifice his life rather than his honor. 
But for the sake of his four children he determined to 
make an attempt to escape, and accordingly, a few days 
later, the family, having collected together all their 
available and easily transported assets, hitched up their 
wagon and drove away in the dead of night. Their depart- 
ure in this manner was not expected, and was not discovered 
for nearly forty-eight hours, during which time the 
refugees had made considerable progress over the surround- 
ing mountains. They maintained their march for nearly a 
week, without incident, and were congratulating themselves 
upon their escape, when the disaster which they had feared 
overtook them. 

They were camped by the side of a little stream in a fer- 
tile valley, and all were sleeping peacefully but the elder boy, 
who was acting: fis sentinel. His attention was first called 
to danger by the uneasiness displayed by the horses, which, 
l)y their restless manner and sudden anxiety, showed that 
instinct warned them of an approaching party. Without 
wasting a moment's time, the young man hastily aroused 
the sleepers, who prepared to abandon their camp and seek 
refuge in the adjoining timber. They had barely reached 
cover when a party of mounted armed men rode up. 



94 JIV XATIVE LAXD. 

riiuliii»x ;i deserted camp, thev separated, and commcuoed 
to scour the surrounding country. One of the number 
soon came upon the retreating family, but before he coukl 
cover them with his rifle he had been shot dead by the 
infuriated father, who Avas determined to resist to the 
uttermost the horrible fate which now stared them in the 
face. 

The noise was taken by the other searchers as a signal 
to them that the hunted family had been found, and 
knowing that this would be so, the man and his sons 
hurried the woman and younger children to a secluded spot 
at a little distance, and seeking convenient cover deter- 
mined to make a desperate effort to protect those for 
Avhose safety they were responsible. Unfortunately for 
the successful carrying out of this plan, the helpless 
section of the party was discovered first. The avenging 
party then divided up into two sections, one of which 
dragged away the wonuin and her young children, and the 
others went in search of the man and his two sons. They 
speedily found them, and in the fight which followed two 
lives were lost on both sides. 

The oldest son of the escaping party was wounded and 
left for dead. Several hours later consciousness returned 
to him, and the first siojht that met his ijaze was the dead 
bodies of his father and brother. A chancre was offered 
him to escape, but weak as he was from loss of blood, he 
determined to follow up the kidnaping party, forming the 
desperate resolve that if he could not rescue his mother 
and sisters, he would at least save them from the horrible 
fate that he knew awaited them. This resolve involved 
his death, for he was no match for the men he was con- 
tending against. No grave was ever dug for his remains, 



THE MORMONS AND THEIR WIVES. 95 

and no headstone tells the story of his noble resolution and 
his intrepid effort to carry it into execution. 

There were hundreds, and probably thousands, of 
similar incidents, and Mormonism proved a sad drawback 
to the happiness of a people who otherwise had before 
them prospects of a most delightful character. Brigham 
Young proved a marvelous success as a ruler. He had 
eighteen wives and an indefinite number of children, esti- 
mates concerning the number of which vary so much that 
it is best not to give any of them. It is generally stated 
and understood that the so-called revelation calling upon 
the chosen people to practice polygamy, was an invention 
on the part of Young, designed to cover up his own im- 
morality, and to obtain religious sanction for improper 
relationships he had already built up. However this may 
be, it is certain that polygamy had a serious blow dealt at it 
by the death of its ardent champion. Since then stern 
federal legislation has resulted in the practical suppression 
of the crime, and in recent years the present head of the 
church has officially declared the jDractice to be improper, 
and the habit dead. 

Brigham Young's grave, of which we give an illus- 
tration, has been visited from time to time by countless 
pleasure and sight-seekers. Like the man, it is unique in 
every respect. It is situated in the Prophet's private 
burial ground, which was surveyed and laid out by him with 
special care. He even went so far as to select the last 
resting place for each of his eighteen wives, and so careful 
was he over these details that the honor of restino- near him 
was given to each wife in order of the date of her being 
''sealed" to him, in accordance with the rites and laws of 
the church. Most of the Mrs. Younss have been buried 



9G J/r XATIVE LAJSri). 

according to arrangements made, but all of the remarkable 
aggregation of wives has not yet been disposed of in the 
manner desired. The Prophet's favorite wife, concerning 
whose relationship to Mrs. Grover Cleveland there has 
been so much controversy, was named Amelia Folsom. 
For her special comfort the Prophet built the Amelia 
Palace, one of the most unique features of Salt Lake City. 
Here the lady lived for several years. 

Let us leave the unpleasant side of Mormon history and 
see what the zealous, if misguided, people have succeeded 
in accomplishing. Salt Lake City, which was originally 
settled by Brigham Young and his follow^ers in July, 1847, 
is perhaps the most uniform city in the world so far as its 
plans are concerned. The original settlers laid out the 
city in squares ten acres large. Instead of streets sixty 
and eighty feet wude, as are too common in all our crowded 
cities, a uniform width of 130 feet was adopted, with more 
satisfactory results. In the original portion of the city 
these M'ide streets are a permanent memorial to the fore- 
thought of the early Mormons. The shade trees they 
planted are now magnificent in their proportions, and along 
each side of the street there runs a stream of water of 
exquisite clearness. There is yevy little crowding in the 
way of house-building. Each house in the city is sur- 
rounded b}^ a green lawn, a garden and an orchard, so that 
poverty and squalor of the slum type is practically unknown. 
The communistic idea of homes in common, which has 
received so much attention of late years, was not adopted 
by the founders of this city, who, however, took excellent 
precautions to stamp out loafing, begging and other accom- 
paniments of what may be described as professional 
pauperism. 



THE MORMOXS AXD THEIR WIVES. 97 

Within tliirty years of the building of the tirst house in 
Salt Lake City, which, by the way, is still standing, the 
number of inhabitants ran up to 20,000. It is now prob- 
ably more than 50,000, and the city stands thirty-first 
in the order of those whose clearing-house returns are 
reported and compared weekly. Hotels abound on every 
side, and benevolent institutions and parks are common. 
Churches, of course, there are without number, and now 
that the Government has interfered in the protection of 
so-called Gentiles, almost all religious sects are represented. 

No description of the Mormon Temple can convey a 
reasonable idea of its grandeur. Six years after the arrival 
of the pilgrims at Salt Lake City, or in 1853, work was 
commenced on this immense structure, upon which at least 
$7,000,000 have been expended. Its length is 200 feet, its 
width 100 feet, and its height the same. At each corner 
there is a tower 220 feet high. The thickness of the walls 
is 10 feet, and these are built of snow-white granite. So 
conspicuous and massive is this building, that it can be seen 
from the mountains fifty and even a hundred miles away. 

The Tabernacle, which is in the same square as the 
Temple, and just west of it, is aptly described by Mr. P. 
Donan as one of the architectural curios of the Avorld, 
It looks like a vast terrapin back, or half of a prodigious 
egg-shell cut in two lengthwise, and is built wholly of iron, 
glass and stone. It is 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 
100 feet high in the center of the roof, which is a single 
mighty arch, unsupported by pillar or post, and is said to 
have but one counterpart on the globe. The walls are 
12 feet thick, and there are 20 huge double doors for 
entrance and exit. The Tabernacle seats 13,462 people, 
and its acoustic properties are so marvelously perfect that a 



98 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

whisper or the dropping of a pin can be heard all over it. 
The organ is one of the largest and grandest toned in 
existence, and was built of native woods, by Mormon 
workmen and artists, at a cost of $100,000. It is h^i feet 
high, has 57 stops, and contains 2,648 pipes, some of them 
nearly as large as the chimneys of a Mississippi River 
steamer. 

The choir consists of from 200 to 500 trained voices, 
and the music is glorious beyond description. Much of 
it is in minor keys, and a strain of })laintive*ness mingles 
with all its majesty and power. All the seats are free, 
and tourists from all parts of the world are to be found 
among the vast multitudes that assemble at every service. 
Think of seeing the Holy Communion broken bread, and 
water from the Jordan River, instead of wine, administered 
to from 6,000 to 8,000 communicants at one time I One 
can just fancy the old-time ]Mormon elders marching in, 
each followed by his five or twenty-five wives and his fifty 
or a hundred children. 

Close by is Assembly Hall, also of white granite, and of 
Gothic architecture. It has seats for 2,500 people, and is 
most remarkable for the costly fresco work on the ceiling, 
which illustrates scenes from Mormon history, including 
the alleged discovery of the golden plates and their delivery 
to Prophet Smith by the Angel Moroni. 

All around this remarkable city are sights of surpassing 
beauty. Great Salt Lake itself ought to be regarded as 
one of the wonders of the world. Although an inland sea, 
with an immense area intervening between it and the 
nearest ocean, its waters are much more brackish and salty 
than those of either the Atlantic or the Pacific, and its 
specific gravity is far greater. Ex])erts tell us that the 



THE MORMOXS AXD THEIR WIVES. 99 

percentage of salt and soda is six times as great as in the 
waters of the Athmtic, and one great advantage of living 
in its vicinitj is the abundance of good, pure salt, which is 
produced b}"^ natural evaporation on its banks. It would 
be interesting, if it were possible, to explain why it is that 
the water is so salty. Various reasons have been advanced 
from time to time for this phenomenon, but none of them 
are sufficiently practical or tangible to be of great interest 
to the unscientitic reader. 

It is just possible that this wonderful lake may in course 
of time disappear entirely. Some years ago its width was 
over 40 miles on an average, and its length was very much 
greater. Now it barely measures 100 miles from end to end 
and the width varies from 10 to 60 miles. In the depth the 
gradual curtailment has been more apparent. At one time 
the average depth was many hundred feet, and several 
soundings of 1,000 feet were taken, with the result reported, 
in sailors' parlance, of "No bottom." At the present time 
the depth varies from 40 to 100 feet, and appears to be 
lessening steadil}', presumabh' because of the extraordinary 
deposit of solid matter from the very dense waters with 
which it is tilled. 

The lake is a bathers' paradise, and the arrangements 
for bathing from Garfield Beach are like everything else in 
the land of the Mormons, extraordinary to a degree. In 
one year there were nearly half a million bathers accommo- 
dated at the four principal resorts, and so rapidly are these 
bathing resorts and establishments multiplied, that the day 
is not distant when every available site on the eastern shore 
of the lake Avill be appropriated for the purpose. As a 
gentleman who has bathed in this lake again and again 
saj's, it seems prei)oslerous to speak of the tinest sea-bath- 



100 MY NATIVE LAND. 

ing on earth a thousand miles from the ocean, although the 
bathing in Great Salt Lake infinitely surpasses anj^thing of 
the kind on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. 

The water contains many times more salt, and much 
more soda, sulphur, magnesia, chlorine, bromine and 
potassium than any ocean water on the globe. It is power- 
ful in medicinal virtues, curing or benefiting many forms 
of rheumatism, rheumatic gout, dyspepsia, nervous dis- 
orders and cutaneous diseases, and it acts like magic on the 
hair of those unfortunates whose tendencies are to bald- 
headedness. It is a prompt and potent tonic and invigorant 
of body and mind, and then there is no end of fun in 
getting acquainted with its peculiarities. A first bath in it 
is alwaj^s as good as a circus, the bather being his or her 
own trick mule. The specific gravity is but a trifle less 
than that of the Holy Land Dead Sea. 

The human body will not and cannot sink in it. You 
can walk out in it where it is fifty feet deep, and your body 
will stick up out of it like a fishing-cork from the shoulders 
upward. You can sit down in it perfectly secure where it 
is fathoms deep. Men lie on top of it with their arms 
under their heads and smoking cigars. Its buoyancy is 
indescribable and unimaginable. Any one can float upon 
it at the first trial; there is nothing to do but lie down 
gently upon it and float. 

But swimming is an entirely different matter. The 
moment you begin to "paddle your own canoe," lively and 
— to the lookers-on — mirth-provoking exercises ensue. 
When you stick your hand under to make a stroke your 
feet decline to stay anywhere but on top ; and when, after 
an exciting tussle with j^our refractory pedal extremities, 
you ao-ain get them beneath the surface, your hands fly out 



THE MORMONS AXD THEIR WIVES. 101 

with the splash and splutter of a half-dozen flutter wheels. 
If, on account of your brains being heavier than your 
heels, you chance to turn a somersault, and your head goes 
under, your heels will pop up like a pair of frisky, dapper 
ducks. 

You cannot keep more than one end of yourself under 
water at once, but you soon learn how to wrestle with its 
novelties, and then it becomes a thing of beauty and a joy 
for any summer day. The water is delightful to the skin, 
every sensation is exhilarating, and one cannot help feeling 
in it like a gilded cork adrift in a jewel-rimmed bowl of 
champagne punch. In the sense of luxurious ease with 
which it envelops the bather, it is unrivaled on earth. 
The only approximation to it is in the phosphorescent 
waters of the Mosquito Indian coast. 

The water does not freeze until the thermometric 
mercury tumbles down to eighteen degrees above zero, or 
fourteen below the ordinary freezing point. It is clear as 
crystal, with a bottom of snow-white sand, and small 
objects can be distinctly seen at a depth of twenty feet. 
There is not a fish or anj^ other living thing in all the 2,500 
to 3,000 square miles of beautiful and mysterious waters, 
except the yearly increasing swarms of summer bathers. 
Not a shark, or a stingaree, to scare the timid swimmer or 
floater; not a minnow, or a frog, a tadpole, or a pollywog 
— nothing that lives, moves, swims, crawls or wiggles. It 
is the ideal sea-bathing place of the world. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE INVASION OF OKLAHOMA. 

A History of tlie Indian Nation — Early Struggles of Oklahoma 
Boomers — Fight between Home-Seekers and Soldiers — Scenes at 
the Opening of Oklahoma Proper — A Miserable Night on the 
Prairie — A Race for Homes — Lawlessness in the Old Indian 
Territory. 

©KLAHOMA, the youngest of our Territories, is in 
many respects also the most interesting. Many 
people confound Oklahoma Territory with the Indian Terri- 
tory, but the two are separate and distinct, the former 
enjoying Territorial Government, while the latter, unfor- 
tunately, is in a very anomalous condition, so far as the 
making and enforcing of laws is concerned. 

Up to within a few years Oklahoma was a part of what 
was then the "Indian Territory." Now it has been 
separated from what may be described as its original 
parent, and is entirely distinct. It contains nearly 40,000 
square miles, and has a population of about a quarter of a 
million, exclusive of about 18,000 Indians. It contains 
more than twice as many people to the square mile as 
many of the "Western States and Territories, and is in a 
condition of thriving prosperity, which is extraordinary, 
when its extreme youth as a Territory is considered. 

In 1888, Oklahoma was the largest single body of 
unimproved land capable of cultivation in the Southwest. 
It was nominally farmed b}^ Indian tribes, but the natural 
productiveness of the soil, and the immense amount of 

(in.-) 



THE IXVASIOX OF OKLAHOMA. 103 

land at their disposal, cultivated habits of indolence, and 
there was a grievous and even sinful waste of fertility. 
To the south was Texas, and on the north, Kansas, both 
rich, powerful and wealthy States. The Indian possessions 
lying between disturbed the natural growth and trend of 
empire. 

Seen from car windows only, the country appeared 
inviting to the eye. It was known, from reports of 
traders, to have all the elements of agricultural wealth. 

And this made the land-hungry man hungrier. 

The era of the "boomer" began; and the "boomer" 
did not stop until he had inserted an opening wedge, in the 
shape of the purchase and opening to settlement of a vast 
area right in the heart of the prairie wilderness. When 
the first opening took place it seemed as though the supply 
would be in excess of the demand. Not so. Every acre — 
good, bad, or indifferent — was gobbled up, and, like as 
from an army of Oliver Twists, the cry went up for more. 
Then the Iowa and Pottawatomie reservations were placed 
on the market. They lasted a day only, and the still un- 
satisfied crowd began another agitation. Kesultant of this, 
a third bargain-counter sale took place. The big Cheyenne 
and Arapahoe country was opened for settlement. Immi- 
grants poured in, and now every quarter-section that is 
tillable there has its individual occupant and owuer. 

But still on the south border of Kansas there camped 
a landless and homeless multitude. They looked longingly 
over the fertile prairies of the Cherokee Strip country, 
stirred the camp-fire embers emphatically, and sent 
another dispatch to Washington asking for a chance 
to get in. Congress heard at last, and in the fall of 
1893 the congestion was relieved. 



104 MY NATIVE LAND. 

The scenes attending the wild scramble from all sides 
of the Strip are a matter of history and do not require 
repetition. Five million acres were quickly taken by 
30,000 farmers. 

The old proverb or adage, which states that the man 
who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before 
is a public benefactor, would seem to proclaim that Okla- 
homa is peopled with philanthropists, for the sturdy 
pioneers who braved hardship and ridicule in order to 
obtain a foothold in this promised land, have, in five or six 
years, completely changed the appearance of the country. 
A hirger proportion of ground in this youthful Territory 
shows that it is a sturdy infant, and it is doubtful whether 
in any part of the United States there has been more 
economy in land, or a more rapid use made of opportunities 
so bountifully provided by nature. 

Truth is often much stranger than fiction, and the story 
of the invasion of Oklahoma reads like one long romance. 
Many men lost their lives in the attempt, some few dying by 
violence, and many others succumbing to disease brought 
about by hardship. Many of the men who started the 
agitation to have Oklahoma opened for settlement by white 
citizens are still alive, and some of them have had their 
heart's desire fulfilled, and now occupy little homes the}^ 
have built in some favorite nook and corner of their nuich 
loved, and at one time grievously coveted, country. 

Oklahoma came into the possession of the Seminole 
Indians by the ordinary process, and remained their 
alleged home until about thirty years ago. In 18G6, the 
country was ceded to the United States Government for 
a consideration, and in 1873, it was surveyed by Federal 
ofiicers, and section lines established according to law. 



THE IXVASIOy OF OKLAHOMA 105 

It was the nutural presumption that this expense was 
incurred with a view to the immediate opening of the 
Territory for settlement. For various reasons, more or 
less valid, and more or less the result of influence and 
possible corruption, the actual opening of the country was 
deferred for more than twenty years after its cession to 
the United States Government, and in the meantime it 
occupied a peculiar condition. Immense herds of cattle 
were pastured on it, and bad men and outlaws from various 
sections of the country awoke reminiscences of biblical 
stories about cities of refuge by squatting upon it, making 
a living by hunting and indifferent agriculture, and resting 
secure from molestation from ofiicers of the law. 

To remedy this anomaly, and to secure homes for them- 
selves and families in what was reported to be one of the 
most fertile tracts in the world, Captain Payne and a 
number of determined men organized themselves into 
colonies. There has always been a mania for new land, 
and many people are never happy unless they are keeping- 
pace with the invasion of civilization into hitherto unknown 
and unopened countries. Many who joined the Payne 
movement were doubtless roving spirits of this character, 
but the majority of them were bona fide home-seekers, 
who believed as citizens of this country they had a right to 
quarter-sections in the promised land, and who were 
determined to enforce those rights. 

No matter, however, what were the motives of the 
** boomers," as they were called from the first, it is certain 
that they went to work in a business-like manner, planned 
a regular invasion, and formed a number of colonies or 
small armies lor the purpose. 

We will follow the fortune of one of these colonies in 



106 MY XATIVE LAND. 

order to show what extraordinary difficulties they Avent 
through, and how much more there is in heaven and earth 
than is dreamt of in our humdrum philosophy. The town 
of Caldwell, on the southern line of Kansas, Avas the camp 
from which the first colonists started. It consisted of about 
forty men, and about 100 women and children. Each 
family provided itself with such equipment and conveniences 
as the scanty means at disposal made possible. A prairie 
schooner, or a wagon with a covering to protect the 
inmates from the weather and secure a certain amount of 
privacy for the women and children, was an indispensable 
item. When the advance was made, there were forty such 
covered wagons, each drawn by a pair of horses or mules, 
and each containing such furniture as the family possessed. 
The more fortunate ones also had in the wao-ons certain 
material to be used in building the little hut, which was to 
be their home until they could earn enough to build a more 
pretentious residence. 

Eye witnesses describe the starting of the colony as one 
of the most remarkable sio-hts ever witnessed. The wagons 
advanced in single file, and some few of the men rode on 
horseback in order to act as advance guides to seek suita- 
ble camping grounds, and to protect the occupants of the 
wagons from attack. In some cases one or two cows were 
attached by halters to the rear of the wagons, and there 
were several dogs which evidently entered heartily into the 
spirit of the affair. The utmost confidence prevailed, and 
hearty cheers were given as the cavalcade crossed the 
Kansas State line and commenced its long and dreary 
march through the rich blue grass of the Cherokee Strip. 

The journey before the home-seekers was about 100 
miles, and at the slow rate of progress they were compelled 



THE IXVASIOJSf OF OKLAHOMA. 109 

to make, it was necessarily a long and arduous task. 
Some few of the women were a little nervous, but the 
majority had thoroughly fallen in with the general feeling 
and were enthusiastic in the extreme. The food they had 
with them was sufficient for immediate needs, and when 
they camped for the night, the younger members of the 
party generally succeeded in adding to the larder by hunt- 
ing and fishing. 

We have all heard of invading armies being allowed to 
proceed on their march unmolested only to be treated with 
additional severity on arriving at the enemies' camp. So 
it was with the colonists. They got through with very 
little difficulty, and no one took the trouble to interfere 
with their progress. Men who had been in the promised 
land for the purpose, had located a suitable spot for the 
formation of the proposed colony, and here the people 
were directed. One of the party had some knowledge of 
land laws, and after a long hunt he succeeded in locating 
one of the section corners established by the recent 
Government survey. This being done, quarter-sections 
were selected by each of the newcomers, and work com- 
menced with a will. Tents and huts were put up as 
rapidly as possible, and before a week had passed the 
newcomers were fairly well settled. They even selected a 
town site and built castles in the air of a most remarkable 
character. 

That they were monarchs of all they surveyed seemed 
to be obvious, and for some weeks their right there was 
none to dispute. Then by degrees the cowboys who were 
herding cattle in the neighborhood began to drop hints of 
possible interference, and while these suggestions were 
being discussed a company of United States troops 
1 



110 MY NATIVE LAND. 

suddenly appeared. With very little explanation they 
arrested every man in the colony for treason and con- 
spiracy, and proceeded to drive the colonists out of the 
country. The men were compelled to hitch up their 
horses, and, succumbing to force of numbers, the colonists 
sadly and wearily advanced to Fort Reno, where they were 
turned over to the authorities. After being kept in con- 
finement for five days they were released, and told to get 
back into Kansas as rapidly as possible. Government 
officials saw that the order was carried out, and then left 
the colonists to themselves. 

The men lost no time in making up their minds to 
organize a second attempt to establish homes for their 
families, and once more they made the march. A bitter 
disappointment awaited them, for they found that their 
cabins had all been destroyed and they had to commence 
work over again. This they did, and they had scarcely got 
themselves comfortable when another small detachment 
of troops arrived to turn them out. The men were tied 
by means of ropes to the tail-ends of wagons, and driven 
like cattle across the prairie to the military fort. For a 
third time they conducted an invasion, and for the third 
time they were attacked by Government troops. 

A spirit of determination had, however, come over the 
men in the interval, and an attempt was made to resist the 
onslaujrht of the soldiers. The Lieutenant in charge was 
astonished at the attitude assumed, and did not care to 
assume the responsibility of ordering his men to fire, as 
many of the colonists were well armed and were undoubt- 
edly crack shots. He, accordingly, adopted more diplo- 
matic measures, and, by establishing somewhat friendly 
relations, o;ot into close quarters with the settlers. A 



THE IXVASION OP OKLAHOMA. Ill 

rough and tumble fiorht with tists soon afterwards resulted, 
and the hard fists and brawny arms of the settlers proved 
too much for the regulars, who were for the time being 
driven off. 

The result of the boomers' victory was the sending of 
600 soldiers to dislodge them, and it being impossible 
to resist such a force as this, the colonists yielded with 
the best grace they could and sadly deserted the homes 
they had tried so hard to build up. Some of the men were 
actually imprisoned for the action they had taken, and the 
colony for a time was completely broken up. The example 
set was followed by several others, and for some years a 
conflict, not particularly creditable to the Government, went 
on. No law was discovered to punish the boomers and 
thus put a final end to the invasions. All that could be 
done was to drive the families out as fast as they went in, 
a course of action far more calculated to excite disorder 
than to quell it. Sometimes the soldiers displayed a great 
deal of forbearance, and even went out of their way to 
help the women and children and reduce their sufferings 
to the smallest possible point. Again, they were some- 
times unduly harsh, and more than one infant lost its life 
from the exposure the evictions brought about. The 
soldiers by no means relished the work given them, and 
many of them complained bitterly that it was no part of 
their duty to fight women and babies. Still they were 
compelled to obey orders and ask no questions. 

While the original colonists, or boomers, gained little 
or nothing for themselves by the hardships they insisted on 
encountering, they really brought about the opening for 
settlement of Oklahoma. About the year 1885 it began to 
be generally understood that the necessary proclamation 



112 MY NATIVE LAJSfD. 

would be issued, and from all parts of the country home- 
hunters began to set out on a journey, var3'ing in length 
from a few hundreds to several thousand miles. The 
Kansas border towns on the south were made the head- 
quarters for the home-seekers, and as they arrived at 
different points they Avere astonished to find that others 
had got there before them. In the neio-hborhood of 
Arkansas City, particularly, there were large settlements of 
boomers, who from time to time made efforts to enter the 
promised land in advance of the proclamation, only to be 
turned back by the soldiers who were guarding every trail. 
The majority of the newcomers thought it better to obey 
the law, and these settled down, with their wagons for 
their homes, and sought work with which to maintain their 
families until the proclamation was issued and the country 
opened to them. 

It was a long and dreary wait. The children were sent 
to school, the men obtained such employment as was 
possible, and life went on peacefully in some of the most 
peculiar settlements ever seen in this country. Finally the 
Springer Bill was passed and the speedy opening of at least 
a portion of Oklahoma assured. The news was telegraphed 
to the four winds of heaven, and where there had been one 
boomer before there were soon fifty or a hundred. In the 
winter of 1888, various estimates were made as to the 
number of people awaiting the President's proclamation, 
and the total could not have been less than 50,000 or 
60,000. Finally the long-looked-for document appeared, 
and Easter Monday, 1889, was named as the date on 
which the section of Oklahoma included in the bill was to 
be declared open. There was a special proviso that any one 
entering the promised and mysterious land prior to noon 



THE lYVASIO.Y OF OKLAHOMA. 113 

on the day named, would be forever disqualified from 
holding land in it, and accordingly the opening resolved 
itself into a race, to commence promptly at high noon on 
the day named. 

Seldom has such a remarkable race been witnessed in 
any part of the world. The principal town sites were on 
the line of the Sante Fe Railroad, and those who were 
seeking town lots crowded the trains, which were not 
allowed to enter Oklahoma until noon. All available 
rolling stock was brought into requisition for the occasion, 
and provision was made for hauling thousands of home- 
seekers to the towns of Guthrie and Oklahoma City, as 
well as to intervening points. Before daylight on the 
morning of the opening, the approaches of the railway 
station at Arkansas City were blocked with masses of 
humanity, and every train was thronged with town boomers, 
or with people in search of free land or town lots. 

The author was fortunate in securing a seat on the first 
train which crossed the Oklahoma border, and which 
arrived at Guthrie before 1 o'clock on the day of the 
opening. It was presumed that the law had been enforced, 
and that we should find nothing but a land-office and a few 
officials on the town site. 

But such was far from being the case. Hundreds of 
people were already on the ground. The town had been 
platted out, streets located, and the best corners seized in 
advance of the law and of the regulations of the pro- 
clamation. 

There was no time to argue with points of law or order. 
Those Avho got in in advance of the law were of a deter- 
mined character, and their number was so great that 
they relied on the confusion to evade detection. One of 



lU MY .XATIVF LASD. 

their number told ;in interesting story to the writer, 
ooncerninir the experience he had o-one throuijh. He 
had shpped into Okhihoma prior to the opening, carrying 
with him enough food to last him for a few days. He 
found a hiding place in the creek bank, and there laid 
until a few minutes before noon on the opening day. 
When his watch and the sun both told him that it 
lacked but a few minutes of noon, he emerged from his 
hiding place, with a view to leisurely locating one of the 
best corner lots in the town. To his chagrin he saw men 
advancing from every direction, and he was made aware of 
the fact that lie had no patent on his idea, which had been 
adopted simultaneously by several hundred others. He 
secured a good lot for himself, and sold it before his 
disqualitication on account of being too "previous" in his 
entry was discovered. 

As each train unloaded its immense throngs of passen- 
i^ers, the scene was one that must always baffle description. 
The town site was on rising ground, and men, and even 
Avomen, sprang from the moving trains, falling headlong 
over each other, and then rushing up hill as fast as their 
lesfs would carry them, in the mad tioht for town lots free 
of charire. The town site was entirely occupied within 
half an hour, and the surrounding country in every direc- 
tion was aiiproi)riatcd for atlditions to the main "city." 
Before night there were at least 10,()()0 people on the 
ground, many estimates placing the number as high as 
20,000. 

Some few had brought with tlicni l)lankcts and pro- 
visions, and these passed a comparatively comfortable 
night. Thousands, however, had no alternative but to 
sleej^ on the open prairie, hungry, as well as thirsty. The 



THE IRVASIOX OF OKLAHOMA. 115 

water in the creek was scarcely fit to drink, and the rail- 
road company had to protect its water tank by force from 
the thirsty adventurers and speculators. 

The niffht broujrht additional terrors. There was no 
danger of wild animals or of snakes, for the stampede of 
the previous day had probably driven every living thing 
miles away, with the solitary exception of ants, which, in 
armies ten thousand strong, attacked the trespassers. By 
morning several houses had been erected, and the arrival of 
freight trainis loaded with provisions not only enabled 
thoughtful caterers to make small fortunes, but also 
relieved the newcomers of much of the distress they had 
been suffering. Within a week the streets were well 
defined, and houses were being built in every direction, and 
within six months there were several brick buildings erected 
and occupied for business and banking purposes. 

The process of building up was one of the quickest on 
record, and Guthrie, like its neighbor on the south, Okla- 
homa City, is to-day a large, substantial business and 
financial center. Those of our readers who crossed Okla- 
homa by rail, even as lately as the winter of 1888, will 
remember that they saw nothing but open prairie, with 
occasional belts of timber. There was not so much as a 
post to mark the location of either of these two large 
cities, nor was there a plow line to define their limits. 

In no other country in the world could results such as 
these have been accomplished. The amount of courage 
required to invest time and money in a prospective town in 
a country hitherto closed against white citizens is enor- 
mous, and it takes an American, born and bred, to make 
the venture. The Oklahoma cities are not boom towns, 
laid out on paper and advertised as future railroad and 



116 MY ]\^ATIVE LAXD. 

business centers ; from the first moment of their existence 
they have been practical, useful trading centers, and every 
particle of growth they have made has been of a permanent 
and lasting character. 

But if the race to the Oklahoma town sites was inter- 
esting, the race to the homesteads was sensational and 
bewildering. All around the coveted land, anxious, deter- 
mined men were waiting for the word "Go," in order to 
rush forward and select a future home. In some instances 
the race was made in the wagons, but in man}- cases a 
solitary horseman acted as pioneer and galloped ahead, in 
order to secure prior claim to a coveted, w^ell-watered 
quarter-section. Shortly before the hour of noon, a 
number of boomers on the northern frontier made an 
effort to advance in spite of the protests of the soldiers on 
guard. These latter were outnumbered ten to one, and 
could not attempt to hold back the home-seekers by force. 
Seeing this fact, the young Lieutenant in charge addressed 
a few pointed sentences to the would-be violators of the 
law. He knew most of the men personally, and was aware 
that several of them were old soldiers. Addressing these 
especially, he appealed to their patriotism, and asked 
whether it was logical for men who had borne arms for 
their country to combine to break the laws, which they 
themselves had risked their lives to uphold. This appeal 
to the loyalty of the veterans had the desired effect, and 
what threatened to be a dangerous conflict resulted in a 
series of hearty hand-shakes. 

A mighty shout went up at noon, and the deer, rabbits 
and birds, which for 3'ears had held undisputed possession 
of the promised land, were treated to a surprise of the 
first water. Horses which had never been asked to run 



THE IXVASION OF OKLAHOMA. 117 

before, were now compelled to assume a gait hitherto 
unknown to them. Wagons were upset, horses thrown 
down, and all sorts of accidents happened. One man, who 
had set his heart on locating on the Canadian River near 
the Old Payne Colony, rode his horse in that direction, and 
ursfed the beast on to further exertions, until it could 
scarcely keep on its feet. Finally he reached one of the 
creeks running into the river. The jaded animal just 
managed to drag its rider up the steep bank of the creek, 
and it then fell dead. Its rider had no time for regrets. 
He had still four or five miles to cover, and he commenced 
to run as fast as his legs would carry him. His over- 
estimate of his horse's powers of endurance, and his 
under-estimate of the distance to be covered, lost him his 
coveted home ; for Avhen he arrived a large colony had got 
in ahead of him from the western border, and there were 
two or three claimants to every homestead. 

In other cases there were neck and neck races for 
favored locations, and sometimes it would have puzzled an 
experienced referee to have determined which was really 
the winner of the race. Compromises were occasionally 
agreed to, and although there was a good deal of bad 
temper and recrimination, there was very little violence, 
and the men whose patience had been sorely taxed, 
behaved themselves admirably, earning the respect of the 
soldiers who were on guard to preserve order. The excite- 
ment and uproar was kept up long after night-fall. In 
their feverish anxiety to retain possession of the homes for 
which they had waited and raced, hundreds of men stayed 
up all night to continue the work of hut building, knowing 
that nothing would help them so much in pressing their 
claims for a title as evidence of work on bona fide improve- 



118 31 Y XATIVE LAXD. 

ments. They kept on diiy after day, and, late in the 
season as it was, many of the newcomers raised a good 
crop that year. 

The opening of other sections of the old Indian Terri- 
tory, now included in Oklahoma, took place two or three 
years later, when the scenes we have briefly described were 
repeated. To-day, Oklahoma extends right up to the 
southern Kansas line, and the Cherokee Strip, on whose 
rich blue grass hundreds of thousands of cattle have been 
fattened, is now a settled country, with at least four fami- 
lies to every square mile, and with a number of thriving 
towns and even large cities. At the present time the 
question of Statehood for the youngest of our Territories 
is being actively debated. No one disputes the fact that 
the population and wealth is large enough to justify the 
step, and the only question at issue is whether the whole 
of the Indian Territory should be included in the new 
State, or whether the lands of the so-called civilized tribes 
should be excluded. 

The lawlessness which has prevailed in some portions 
of the Indian Territory is held to be a strong argument in 
favor of opening up all the lands for settlement. At 
present the Indians own immense tracts of land under very 
peculiar conditions. A large number of white men, many 
of them respectable citizens, and many of them outlaws 
and refugees from justice, have married fair Cherokee, 
Choctaw and Creek girls, and these men, while not recog- 
nized by the heads of the tribes, are able to draw from the 
Government, in the names of their wives, the large sums 
of money from time to time distributed. Advocates of 
Statehood favor the allotment to each Indian of his share 
of the land, and the purchase by the Government of the 



THE IXVASIOX OF OKLAHOMA. Hi) 

immense residue, which could then be opened for settle- 
ment. 

Until this question is settled, the anomaly will continue 
of civilization and the reverse existing side by side. Some 
of the Indians have assumed the manners, dress, virtues 
and vices of their white neighbors, in which case they have 
generally dropped their old names and assumed something 
reasonable in their place. But many of the red men who 
adhere to tradition, and who object to innovation, still stick 
to the names given them in their boyhood. Thus, in travel- 
ing across the Indian Territory, Indians with such names 
as "Hears-Something-Every where," "Knows-Where-He- 
Walks," "Bear-in-the-Cloud," "Goose-Over-the-Hill," 
"Shell-on-the-Neck," "Sorrel Horse," "White Fox," 
"Strikes-on-the-Top-of-the-Head," and other equally far- 
fetched and ridiculous terms and cognomens. 

Every one has heard of Chief "Rain-in-the-Face," a 
characteristic Indian, whose virtues and vices have both 
been greatly exaggerated from time to time. A picture is 
given of this representative of a rapidly decaying race, and 
of the favorite pony upon which he has ridden thousands 
of miles, and which in its early years possessed powers of 
endurance far beyond what any one who has resided in 
countries removed from Indian settlements can have any 
idea or conception of. 



CHAPTER VII. 

COWBOYS REAL AND IDEAL. 

A Much Maligned Class — The Cowboy as he Is, and as he is Supposed 
to be — Prairie Fever and how it is Cured — Life on the Ranch 
Thirty Years Ago and Now — Singular Fashions and Changes of 
Costume — Troubles Encountered by would-be Bad Men. 

HMONG the thoroughly American types of humanit}', 
none is more striking or unique than the cowboy. 
This master of horsemanship and subduer of wild and 
even dangerous cattle, has been described in so many ways 
that a great difference of opinion exists as to what he was, 
and w^hat he is. We give a picture of a cowboy of to-day, 
and will endeavor to show in Avhat important respects he 
differs from the cowboy of fiction, and even of history. 

Sensational writers have described the cowboy as a 
thoroughly bad man, and, moreover, as one who delights in 
the word "bad," and regards it as a sort of diploma or 
qualification. Travelers over the region in which the 
cowboy used to be predominant give him a very different 
character, and speak of him as a hard-working, honest 
citizen, generous to a fault, courteous to women and aged 
or infirm men, but inclined to be humorous at the expense 
of those who are strong and big enough to return a joke, 
or resent it, if they so prefer. 

We have spoken of the cowboy in two tenses : the 
present and the past. Strictly speaking, we should, 
perhaps, have only used one, for many of the best judges 

(HO) 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 121 

say that there is no such thing as a cowboy in this day and 
generation. He flourished in all his glory in the days of 
immense ranges, when there was an abundance of elbow 
room for both man and beast, and when such modern 
interferences with the cattle business as the barb-wire fence 
did not exist. The work of cattle herding and feeding 
to-day certainly differs in a most remarkable manner from 
that of thirty and even twenty years ago, and the man has 
naturally changed with his work. Now, the cowboy is, to 
all intents and purposes, a farm hand. He feeds the 
stock, drives it to water when necessary, and goes to the 
nearest market town to dispose of surplus products, with 
all the sj^stem and method of a thoroughly domesticated 
man. Formerly he had charge of hundreds, and perhaps 
thousands, of branded cattle, which ranged at will over 
boundless prairies, and the day's work was frequently 
varied by a set-to with some unfriendly Indians or some 
exceptionally daring cattle thieves. 

The very nature of his work used to make the cowboy 
somewhat desperate in his habits, and apt to be suspicious 
of newcomers. He was never such a terrible individual as 
has been frequently stated in print. His work confined 
him to a few frontier States and Territories, and hence he 
was a very convenient person to ridicule and decry. The 
man who met the average cowboy face to face, generally 
learned to respect him, and speedily appreciated the fact 
that it paid to be at least civil. Writers who never went 
within 500 miles of the nearest cattle ranch or cowboy's 
home, treated him with less courtesy and described him in 
all sorts of terms. 

Dime literature, with its yellow covers and sensational 
pictures of stage robberies and the like, has always 



122 3fY N'ATIVE LAKD. 

libeled the American cowboy to a most outrageous extent. 
As a result of the misapprehensions thus created, what is 
known as cowboy or prairie fever is quite a common 
disease among youths who are trying to raise a mustache 
for a first time. The feats of recklessness, the absolute 
disregard of conventionality and the general defiance 
attributed to the man who herds cattle on the prairie, 
seem to create a longing on the part of sensationally 
inclined youths, and many of these have cut their teeth 
and learned their lesson in a very different manner from 
what was expected. 

Let us imagine for a moment the experiences of the 
young man from the East, who has convinced himself, by 
careful reasoning and reading, that nature intended him to 
shine in the West. It is probable that he came to this 
most important conclusion many years before, and it is not 
unlikely that his first cowboy enthusiasm was fed by 
attacks upon the cat, with the nearest approach he could 
obtain to a rawhide whip. From this primitive experience, 
sensational literature, and five and ten-cent illustrated 
descriptions of the adventures of "Bill, the Plunger," 
and "Jack, the Indian Slayer," completed the education, 
until the boy, or young man, as the case may be, deter- 
mines that the hour has arrived for him to cast away 
childish things and become a genuine bad man of the 
West. 

Just how he gets half way across the continent is a 
matter of detail. Sometimes the misguided youth is too 
proud to beg and too honest to steal, in which case he 
probably saves up his pocket money and buys a cheap 
ticket. The more romantic and strictly correct course to 
adopt is to start out without a dollar, and to beat one's 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 123 

way across the continent, so as to be thoroughly entitled to 
recognition on the prairie. Many a young man who has 
commenced the pilgrimage towards glorified badness, has 
had the fever knocked out of him before advancing 100 
miles, but others have succeeded in getting through, and 
have arrived in Texas, Wyoming or Montana, as the case 
may have been, thoroughly convinced of their own ability 
to hold their own in all company. 

The disappointment that awaits the adventurous one is 
almost too great to be expressed in words. If the cowboys 
were one-half as bad as they are painted, they would 
proceed to demonstrate their right to an evil reputation by 
murdering the newcomer, and stealing his wearing apparel 
and any money he might happen to have with him. 
Instead of doing this, the cowboy generally looks with 
amusement on the individual who has come so many miles 
to join him. The greeting is not of the exuberant character 
expected, and frequently the heart of the newcomer is 
broken by being told to go back to his mammy and spend 
a few years more in the nursery. A runaway tenderfoot 
just fresh from school is not wanted on the cattle ranch, 
and although "Western farmers are too good-natured to 
resent very severely the liberty taken, they never flatter 
the newcomer by holding out any inducements or making 
any prophecies as to his future. 

The writer met a runaway enthusiast of this character 
a few years ago. His destination was the extreme West. 
As he did not know himself the State to which he was 
bound, he presumed that no one else did. When found, 
he had got as far as Kansas City, and hunger and lack of 
a place where he could sleep in comfort had cooled his 
ardor and inaugurated a vigorous attack of home-sickness. 



124 3ir NATIVE LAND. 

As the ideal cowboy life does not provide for feather beds 
or meals served in courses, it was suggested to the lad that 
possibly he was having a good experience in advance, and 
getting himself accustomed to the privations of the life he 
had decided to adopt. 

This logic did not commend itself at all to the runaway, 
whose sole ambition now was to borrow enough money to 
telegraph a message of penitence to his father. A small 
sum necessary for the purpose was given him, and the 
dispatch sent. Within an hour an answer was received 
and money transmitted by wire to supply the lad with a 
ticket for his home, where it is exceedingly probable what 
little cowboy fever he had left in him was speedily 
removed in old-fashioned and regulation manner. 

The cowboy must not be confounded with the cattle baron. 
Ten or twelve years ago, when a great deal of money was 
made out of raising cattle, there was an invasion of the 
prairie States by men who knew nothing whatever about 
cattle raising, but who had made up their minds to secure 
a fortune by raising steers. They took with them as 
inconsistent ideas as did the youth in search of adventure. 
Often they carried large sums of money, which they 
invested very lavishly in business, and they also took with 
them ridiculously fine clothes, patent leather boots, velve- 
teen jackets, and other evidences of luxury, which made 
them very unpopular and very ridiculous in their new 
homes. Nine-tenths of these called themselves "cattle 
barons," and about the same proportion obtained a great 
deal of experience but very little money, while trying to 
revolutionize the cattle business. 

It is not necessary to own cattle at all to be a cowboy, 
although many members of this interesting profession own 



COWBOYS— J teal and Ideal 127 

a few beasts of their own and arc allowed to have tlicni 
graze with the other stock on the ranch. Generally 
speaking, the term used to be applied to all those who 
were engaged in handling the cattle, and in getting them 
together on the occasion of the annual round-ups. The 
old-time cowboy did not have a very high reputation, nor 
was he always looked upon quite as leniently as his sur- 
roundings demanded. About twenty years ago, a well- 
known cattleman wrote the following description of the 
cowboy and the life he led : 

"If any one imagines that the life of a cowboy or 
ranchman is one of ease and luxury, or his diet a feast of 
fat things, a brief trial will dispel the illusion, as is mist by 
the sunshine. True, his life is one of more or less excite- 
ment or adventures, and iimch of it is spent in the saddle, 
yet it is a hard life, and his daily fare will never give the 
gout. Corn bread, mast-fed bacon, and coffee, constitute 
nine-tenths of their diet; occasionally they have fresh 
beef, and less often they have vegetables of any descrip- 
tion. They do their own cooking in the rudest and fewest 
possible vessels, often not having a single plate or knife 
and fork, other than their pocket knife, but gather around 
the camp-kettle in true Indian style, and with a piece of 
bread in one hand, proceed to fish up a piece of 'sow 
belly,' and dine sumptuously, not forgetting to stow away 
one or more quarts of the strongest coffee imaginable, 
without sugar or cream. Indeed, you would hesitate, if 
judging it from appearance, whether to call it coffee or 
ink. Of all the vegetables, onions and potatoes are the 
most desired and the oftenest used, when anything more 
than the 'old regulation' is had. Instead of an oven, 
fireplace or cooking stove, a rude hole is dug in the ground 

8 



128 MY NATIVE LAND. 

and a fire made therein, and the coffee pot, the camp 
kettle and the skillet are his only culinary articles used. 

"The life of the cowboy is one of considerable daily 
danger and excitement. It is hard and full of exposure, 
but is wild and free, and the young man who has long been 
a cowboy has but little taste for any other occupation. 
He lives hard, works hard, has but few comforts, and 
fewer necessities. He has but little, if any, taste for 
reading. He enjoys a coarse practical joke, or a smutty 
story ; loves danger, but abhors labor of the common 
kind; never tires of riding, never wants to walk, no 
matter how short the distance he desires to go. He would 
rather fight with pistols than pray; loves tobacco, liquor 
and woman better than any other trinity. His life 
borders nearly upon that of an Indian. If he reads any- 
thinsr, it is in most cases a blood and thunder storv of the 
sensational style. He enjoys his pipe, and relishes a 
jDractical joke on his comrades, or a tale where abounds 
animal propensity. 

*'His cloth^es are few and substantial, scarce in number 
and often of a gaudy pattern. The 'sombrero' and large 
spurs are inevitable accompaniments. Every house has 
the appearance of lack of convenience and comfort, but 
the most rude and primitive modes of life seem to be 
satisfactory to the cowboy. His wages range from $15.00 
to $20.00 a month in specie. Mexicans can be employed 
for about $12.00 per month. The cowboy has few wants 
and fewer necessities, the principal one being a full supply 
of tobacco. 

"We will here say for the benefit of our Northern 
readers, that the term 'ranch' is used in the Southwest 
instead of 'farm,' the ordinary laborer is termed a 'cowboy,' 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 129 

the horse used a 'cow horse,' and the herd of horses a 
*cavvie yard.' 

"The fame of Texas as a stock-growiug country went 
abroad in the land, and soon after her admission to the 
Union, unto her were turned the eyes of many young men 
born and reared in the older Southern States, who were 
poor in this w^orld's goods, but were ambitious to make 
for themselves a home and a fortune. Many of this class 
went to Texas, then a new and comparatively thin and 
unsettled country, and began in humblest manner, perhaps 
for nominal wages, to lay the foundation for future wealth 
and success." 

This is a very severe description, and relates to a class 
of men who were found in the wildest parts of Texas 
shortly after the war. It certainly does not adequately 
describe the cowboy of the last twentj' years. Another 
writer, who was himself for more than a quarter of a 
centur}^ engaged in the work of herding cattle, gives a 
much fairer description of the cowboy. He divides those 
entitled to this name into three classes, and argues that 
there is something noble about the name. He also claims 
that in view of the peculiar associations, privations, sur- 
roundings and temptations of the cowboy, he is entitled to 
much credit for the way in which he has retained the 
best characteristics of human nature^ in spite of his 
absence from the refining influences of civilization. 

According to this authority, the first elass of cowboys 
include the genuine, honest worker on the prairie, the man 
who has due respect for the rights of all. He is scrupu- 
lously honest, but yet charitable enough to look leniently 
on the falling away from grace of his less scrupulous 
brothers, and he is loyal to a renuirkable extent to every 



130 MY XATIVE LAND. 

one who has a right to claim his friendship. In the second 
class is placed the less careful cowboy, who is not quite so 
strict in his moral views, although no one would like to 
class him as a thief. The story is told of the Irishman 
who found a blanket bearing upon it the Government 
mark "U. S." Paddy examined the blanket carefully and 
on findinof the mark shouted out: "U. for Patrick and S. 
for McCarty. Och, but I'm glad I've found me blanket. 
Me fayther told me that eddication was a good thing, and 
now I know it ; but for an eddication I never would have 
found the blanket." 

Reasoning of this kind is quite common among this 
second class or division of the cowboy. It is not sug- 
gested that he is exactly a thief, because he would scorn 
the acts of the city light-fingered gentleman, who asks you 
the time of day, and then, by a little sleight-of-hand, 
succeeds in introducing your watch to a too obliging and 
careless pawnbroker at the next corner. But he is a little 
reckless in his ideas of what lawyers call the rights of 
individuals, and he is a little too much inclined, at times, 
to think that trilles that are not his own ought to be so. 
The writer, to whom we are referring, includes in class 
three the typical cowboy, and the man used by the fiction 
writer as a basis for his exaggerations and romances. Into 
this class drifts the cowboy who is absolutely indifferent as 
to the future, and who is perfectly happy if he has enough 
money to enable him to buy a fancy bridle or a magnificent 
saddle. These are about the beginning and the end of his 
ideas of luxury; although he enjoys a good time, he looks 
upon it rather as incidental and essential to pleasure. A 
steady position at a small salary, a reasonable amount to 
do, and fairly good quarters, constitute all he looks for or 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 131 

» 

«xpects. He is perfectly honest with all his indifference. 
He is often whole-souled and big-hearted, constantly allows 
himself to be imposed upon, but has an inconvenient habit 
of occasionally standing up for his rights and resenting too 
much oppression. He is exceedingly good-natured, and 
will often drive some stray cattle several miles for the con- 
venience of a perfect stranger, and a man to whom he 
owes no oblio^ation whatever. 

It is said that such a thing as distress among the rela- 
tives or descendants of cowboys was impossible, because 
of the deliochtful tenderheartedness of men with rough 
exterior and whose daily life makes them appear hardened. 
The working cowboy is seldom rich, even in the most 
generous acceptation of the term. The small wages he 
earns are expended almost entirely on decorations for his 
horse or himself. Even when he succeeds in saving a few 
dollars, the money seems to burn a hole in his pocket, and 
he generally lends it to some one in greater need than 
himself. But every man working on a ranch has some- 
thing to spare for the widow or children of a deceased 
brother, especially if he was killed in the course of his 
duties. An instance of this generous-hearted disposition 
might well be given, but it is sufficient to say that the rule 
is invariable, and that a promise made to a dying man in 
this respect is never forgotten. 

Leaving for a moment the personal characteristics of 
the much-maligned cowboy, who has been described as 
everything from a stage-robber to a cutthroat, we may 
with profit devote a little space to a consideration of his 
attire as it was, and as it is. In the picture of a cowboy 
in this work the modern dress is shown very accurately. 
It will be seen that the man is dressed conveniently for his 



132 MY XATIVE LAND. 

work, and that he has none of the extraordinary handicaps 
to progress, in the way of grotesque decorations, which he 
had been thought to believe were, at least, part and parcel 
of the cowboy's wardrobe and get up. Certainly at the 
present time men engaged in feeding and raising cattle are 
almost indifferent as to their attire, wearing anything 
suitable for their purpose, and making their selections 
rather with a view to the durability, than the handsome- 
ness, of the clothing. 

But in years gone by, there was almost as much fashion 
changing among the men on the prairie as among the 
woman in the drawing-room. At the close of the war the 
first of the arbitrary dictates of fashion went out. A 
special form of stirrup was introduced. It was very 
narrow and exceedingly inconvenient, but it was consid- 
ered the right thing, and so everybody used it. Rawhide 
was used in place of lines, and homespun garments were 
uniform. Calfskin leggings, made on the prairie, with the 
hair on the outside, were first worn, and large umbrella-like 
straw hats came into use. A little later it was decided the 
straw hat was not durable enough for the purpose. When 
excited a cowboy frequently starts his horse with his hat, 
and when he is wearing a straw, four or five sharp blows 
knock out of the hat any semblance it may ever have had 
to respectability and symmetry. The wide brim woolen 
hat was declared to be the correct thing, and every one was 
glad of the change. The narrow stirrup gave place to a 
wider one, and the stirrup leather was shortened so as to 
compel the rider to keep his knees bent the whole time. 
The most important change in fashion twenty years 
ago, was the introduction of tanned leather lesjcjinjjs and of 
handsome bridles. Manv a man now pays two or three 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 133 

months' wages for his bridle, and since the fashion came 
in, it is probable that many thousand dollars have been 
invested in ornamental headgear for prairie horses and 
ponies. A new saddle, as well as bow and tassel decora- 
tions, also came in at this period, and it is to be admitted 
that for a time exaggeration in clothing became general. 
It is an old joke on the prairie that the average man's hat 
costs him more than his clothes. 

Many a cowboy earning $30.00 a month has spent 
three times that sum on his saddle alone. More than one 
man earning $25.00 a month has invested every cent of 
his salary in silver buckles for his strange looking hat. 
Equally extravagant is the average man as to his saddle, 
bridle, and even spurs and bit. Those who talk so much 
about the bad habits of these people, will hardly credit the 
fact that many a cowboy abstains from liquor and tobacco 
for an entire year at a stretch, simply because he wants to 
purchase some article of attire, which he thinks will make 
him the envy of the entire ranch. 

The cow pony is worthy of as much attention and 
thought as the cowboy. It is often said that the latter is 
hard and cruel, and that he uses his pony roughly. This 
is far from being correct. Between the cowboy and his 
pet pony there is generally a bond of sympathy and a 
thorough understanding, without which the marvelous 
feats of horsemanship which are performed daily would be 
impossible. Perhaps in the preliminary breaking in of 
the pony there is more roughness than is quite necessary. 
At the same time, it should be remembered that to subdue 
an animal which was born on the prairie and has run 
wild to its heart's content, is not a very simple matter. 
The hal^it of bucking, which a Texas pony seems to 



134 MY NATIVE LAND. 

iuhcrit from its ancestors, is a very inconvenient one, and 
an expert rider from the East is perfectly helpless upon 
the back of a bucking pony. The way in which he mounts 
assures the animal at once that he is a stranger in those 
parts. A natural desire to unseat the daring stranger 
becomes paramount, and the pony proceeds to carry out 
the idea. 

At first it moves quietly and the rider congratulates 
himself on having convinced the animal that resistance will 
be in vain. But just as he begins to do this the animal 
gets down its head, arches up its back, something after the 
manner of an angry cat, leaps into the air and comes down 
on the ground with its four legs drawn together under it, 
perfectly stiff and straight. The rider seldom knows how 
it happened. lie only knows that it felt as though a 
cannon ball had struck him, and that he fell off most 
ungracefully. 

A pony never bucks viciously when a cowboy is riding 
it. It has learned by long experience that the process is 
distinctly unprofitable. Breaking in a pony and convincing- 
it that the way of the transgressor is hard, is one of the 
difficulties of prairie life. "When, however, it is once 
accomplished, an almost invaluable assistant has been 
secured. The staying powers of the cow pony are almost 
without limit. He will carry his master 100 miles in a day, 
apparently with very little fatigue. In point of speed he 
may not be able to compete with his better bred Eastern 
cousin, but in point of distance covered he entirely out- 
classes him. Assuming an easy gait within its powers of 
endurance, a pony of the prairie will keep it up almost 
indefinitely. At the end of a very long ride, the man is 
generally more fatigued than his steed. The latter, after 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 135 

being relieved of its saddle and bridle, rolls vigorously to 
get rid of the stiffness, and, after an hour or two, is 
apparently in as good condition as ever. 

The charm connected with cowboy life is found in the 
disregard of strict rules of etiquette and ceremony, and in 
the amount of fun which is considered to be in place 
around the prairie fire. We have already seen that the 
wages paid to cowboys are, and always have been, very 
small. The hours that have to be worked, and the hard- 
ships that have to be encountered, seem to combine 
toofether to deter men from leadino- the life at all. We 
know that it does neither, and that it is seldom there is 
really any dearth of help on the prairie or among the 
cattle herds. The greatest delight is derived from jokes 
played at the expense of smart tenderfeet, who approach 
the camp with too much confidence in themselves. The 
commonest way of convincing the newcomer that he has 
made a mistake is to persuade him to ride an exceptionally 
fractious pony. The task is generally approached with 
much confidence, and almost invariably ends in grief. If 
the stranger can retain his seat and thus upset the re- 
hearsed programme, the delight of the onlookers is even 
greater than their disappointment, and the newcomer is 
admitted at once into the good fellowship of the crowed. 

Nothing aggravates a cowboy so much, or makes him 
more desperate in his selection of tricks, as the affectation 
of badness on the part of a newcomer. A year or two 
ago a young man, who had been saving up his money for 
years in order to emulate the deeds of some of the heroes 
described in the cheap books he had been reading, arrived 
in the Southwest, and proceeded to introduce himself to a 
number of employes of a cattle ranch who, a few years 



13G MY XATIVE LAXD. 

ago, would liiive been known as regulation cowboys. The 
unlimited impudence and the astounding mendacity of the 
youth amused the cowboys very much, and they allowed 
him to narrate a whole list of terrible acts he had com- 
mitted in the East. Before he had been in his new 
company an hour, he had talked of thefts and even killings 
with the nonchalance of a man who had served a dozen 
years in jail. Ilis listeners enjoyed the absurdity of the 
situation, and allowed him to talk at random without 
interruption. 

The story telling was brought to an end in a very 
sensational manner indeed. One of the listeners knew that 
a deputy sheriff Avas in the neighborhood looking out for a 
dangerous character. Skipping out from the party, he 
hunted up the deputy, and told him that one of the hunted 
man's confederates was in the camp. The deputy, who 
was new to the business and anxious to make a reputation 
for himself, rushed to the camp and arrested the story- 
teller in spite of his protests. The young man, who had 
been so brave a few minutes before, wept bitterly, and 
bested that some one would telegraph his mother so as to 
have his character established and his liberty assured. The 
joke was kept up so long that the young man was actually 
placed in safe keeping all night. The following morning 
he was released, as there was nothing whatever against 
him except artistic lying. The speed that he managed to 
attain while hurrying to the nearest railroad station show?d 
that with proper training he might have made a good 
athlete. 

He waited around the station until the next train 
Avent East, and no passenger was more delighted when the 
conductor said ''AH aboard," than was the youth who 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 137 

was going back home very luueh discouraged, but very 
considerably enlightened. 

On another occasion a typical cowboy was traveling on 
tjie cars, and as is quite common with members of his 
profession, had been approached by a sickly looking youth, 
who asked him dozens of questions and evinced a great 
anxiety to embark upon prairie life. There was very little 
to interest the cattle-worker, and after awhile he deter- 
mined to get rid of his not overwelcome, self-introduced 
friend. He accordingly pointed out a rough-looking man 
at the far end of the car, and told the questioner that he 
was the leader of a dangerous band of train robbers. The 
individual was probably some hard-working man of per- 
fectly honest habits, but the would-be brave young man, 
who a few moments before had been a candidate for a life 
of danger and hardship, was so horrified at the bare idea, 
that he decided in a moment to emulate the Irishman who 
said he had left his future behind him, and jumped 
from the moving train, preferring a succession of knocks 
and bruises to actual contact with a man of the character 
he had schooled himself into admiring. 

Every man who creates a disturbance, defies the law, 
and discharges fire-arms at random is spoken of as a cow- 
boy, although in a majority of instances he has never done 
a day's work to justify the name. The tough man from 
the East who goes West to play the bad cowboy, is liable 
to find that he has been borrowing trouble. He finds out 
that an altercation is likely to bring him up facing the 
muzzle of a pistol in the hands of a man much more ready 
to pull the trigger off-hand than to waste time in 
preliminary talU. He soon learns the lesson of circum- 
spection and, if he survives tlie process, his behavior 



138 MY ISFATIVE LAND. 

is usually modified to fit his new surroundings. A 
tragic illustration of the results that may come from a 
tenderfoot's attempt to masquerade as a bad man west of 
the Mississippi River, took place in the winter of 1881-82 
in New Mexico, on a southward-bound Atchison train. 
One of the strangers was terrorizing the others. He was 
a tough-looking fellow from some Eastern city; he had 
been drinking, and he paraded the cars talking loudly and 
profanely, trying to pick quarrels with passengers and 
frequently flourishing a revolver. The train hands did not 
seem inclined to interfere w^ith him, and among the people 
aboard whom he directly insulted, he did not happen to hit 
upon any one who had the sand or the disposition to call 
him down. 

Toward the members of a theatrical company, traveling 
in one of the coaches, he particularly directed his violence 
and insults. His conduct with them at last became 
unbearable, and when, after threatening two actors with 
his revolver and frightening the women to the verge of 
hysterics, he passed onward into another car, a hurried 
council of war was held in the coach be had just vacated, 
and every man who had a pistol got it in readiness, with 
the understanding that if he returned, he was to be shot 
down at the first aggressive movement. But that phase of 
trouble was averted, for, as it happened, he remained in 
the car ahead until, at dusk, the train rolled into 
Albuquerque. 

Here the proprietor of the Armijo House was at the 
station with his hackman awaiting the train's arrival. He 
called out the name of his house at the door of one car, 
and then turning to the hackman said: "You take care of 
the passengers in this car, and I will go to the next." 



COWBOYS— Real and Ideal. 139 

These inoffensive words caught the ear of the tough 
man from the East, who was pushing his way to the car 
platform. He drew his pistol and started for the nearest 
man on the station platform, shouting: 

"You'll take care of us, will you? I'll show you smart 
fellows out here that you are not able to take care of me." 

He flourished his revolver as he spoke and, just as his 
feet struck the second step of the car, he fired, the ball 
passing over the head of the man on the station platform. 
The sound of his pistol Avas quickly followed by two loud 
reports, and the tough man fell forward upon the platform 
dead. The man at whom he had apparently fired had 
drawn his revolver and shot him twice through the heart. 

A crowd gathered as the train rolled on, leaving the 
tough man where he had fallen. Of course the man who 
killed him, a gambler of the town, was fully exonerated at 
the inquest, and was never even indicted for the killing. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WARDS OF OUR NATIVE LAND. 

The Indians' Admirers and Critics — At School and After — Indian 
Courtship and Marriage — Extraordinary Dances — Gambling by 
Instinct — How '^Cross-Eye" Lost his Pony— Pawning a Baby — 
Amusing and Degrading Scenes on Annuity Day. 

©PINIONS differ materially as to the rights and 
wrongs, privileges and grievances, and worthiness 
and worthlessness of the North Americun Indian. Some 
people think that the red man has been shamefully treated 
and betrayed by the white man, and that the catalogue of 
his cfi-ievances is as Ions: as the tale of woe the former is 
apt to tell, whenever he can make himself understood by a 
sympathetic listener. 

Holders of this opinion live for the most part in dis- 
tricts where there are no Indians located. 

There are others who think that the Indian has been 
absurdly pampered by the Government, and that it would 
be as sensible to try to change the arrangement of seasons 
as to attempt to prevent the survival of the fittest, or, in 
other words, to interfere with the gradual, but in their 
opinion inevitable, extermination of the Indian. 

Those holding this extreme view are for the most part 
those who live near Indian reservations, and who have had 
opportunities of studying the red man's character. 

Both views are of course unduly severe. As a useful 
citizen the Indian varies considerably, and it is rather as 
an interesting study that avc approach the subject. 

(WO) 



WARDS OF OUR NATIVE LAND. 141 

Civilization has a very peculiar effect upon the Ameri- 
can Indian. The schools for Indian childi'en are well 
managed, and the education imparted should be sufficient 
to prevent the possibility of a relapse into the unsatis- 
factory habits and the traditional uncleanliness of the 
different tribes. Sometimes the effect of education is 
excellent. There are many Indians to be found who have 
adopted civilized modes of living, and who have built up 
homes and amassed little fortunes by farming, raising 
cattle and trading. Some of the Indians, notably those of 
the five civilized tribes or nations in Indian Territory, 
resemble white men in appearance very much. They will 
sometimes work side by side with swarthy Caucasians, 
whose skin has been tanned })y exposure to the sun, and 
except for the exceptionally high cheek bone and the 
peculiarly straight hair, there is little to distinguish the 
Indian from the white man. 

But these cases are exceptions to the general rule, 
which is that education is looked upon by Indians as a 
degradation rather than otherwise. Great difficulty is 
often experienced in persuading parents to allow their 
children to be taken to the training schools at all, and so 
much compulsion is often necessary that an appearance of 
kidnaping is imparted. The first thing that is dof^;^vith 
an Indian boy or girl admitted to one of these schools, is 
to wash the newcomer with considerable vigor from head 
to foot, and to cut off the superfluous, and, generally 
speaking., thickly matted hair. 

The comfort of short hair, neatly combed and brushed, 
seldom impresses itself upon the youthful brave. For 
obvious reasons this is, however, insisted upon, and while 
the boy is ait school he is kept neat and clean. Directly, 



142 MY NATIVE LAND. 

however, he returns to his tribe he is in danger of relaps- 
ing into the habits of his forefathers. Too often he is 
sneered at for his neatness. His short hair is looked upon 
as an offense, and he is generally willing to fall in with 
tribal fashions, abandon his neat clothing, and let his hair 
grow and his face accumulate the regulation amount of 
dust and dirt. 

The Indian trader and the pioneer generally will tell 
you that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. He will 
repeat this adage until it becomes wearisome in its 
monotony. Then, perhaps, he will vary it by telling 
you that of all the mean Indians the educated one is the 
meanest. This is only true in some instances, but it is a 
fact that education does not invariably benefit the Indian 
at all. 

Almost all Indians are passionately fond of dancing. 
Several books have been written descriptive of the various 
dances of different tribes. Some of them have a hidden 
meaning and dangerous significance, while others are 
merely for the purpose of amusement and recreation. 
For these dances the Indians generally put on the most 
fancy costumes they have, and their movements are some- 
times graceful and sometimes grotesque. The sign dance, 
as seen in some of the Southwestern tribes, is a curious 
one. One of the belles of the tribe leads a man into the 
dancing apartment, which consists of one of two tepees 
thrown together. In one are the tomtom beaters, in the 
other the dancers. In this room the couple begin to 
dance, making signs to each other, the meaning of which 
may be: "Well, what do you think of me? Do you like 
me? Do you think me pretty? How do I affect you?" 
and so on, the signs all being closely watched by the 




Civilized Iqdiaqs — Tt^e Meaqs ar\d \t\e Eqd. 



WABDS OF OUR NATIVE LAXD. 145 

spectators, who iippluud, giggle, chuckle or laugh uproari- 
ously by turns, as the case may be. Such a dance is a 
questioning bee, a collision of wits on the part of two 
really facetious Indians. 

Wit is a universal trait of the savage. Some Avhitc 
men draw. All Indians draw. Some white men are 
cunning. All Indians are cunning. Sonic white men are 
humorous. All Indians are witty. Dry wit, with a pro- 
verbial philosophy in it which would have delighted the 
soul of Tupper, is indigenous to the Indian. The Indian 
is the finest epigrammist on earth. His sentences are 
pithy and sententious, because short — never long and 
involved. A book of Indian wit and wisdom would have 
an enormous sale, and reveal the very core of his thought 
on a typical scale. 

The Indian flirt is sweet, saucy, subtle, seductive. 
She has the art of keeping in stock constantly about her 
a score of bucks, each one of whom flatters himself that 
be, and he alone, is the special object of her admiration. 
Every tribe has had its belle. Poquito for the Modocs, 
Ur-ska-te-na for the Navajos, Mini-haha for the Dakotas, 
Romona for the neighboring bands. These belles have 
their foes among Indian women, but, however cordially 
hated, they never brawl or come to blows. 

Love-making is one of the interesting night scenes in 
an Indian camp. When a young man Avants to court a 
pretty red couquette, he stands at the door of his lodge on 
a bright day and flashes a ray of light from his sun-glass 
on the face of his sweetheart far away. She sees the ray 
as it falls on her, and follows in the direction whence it is 
thrown, right or left. She understands the secret of these 
flash lights. Soon the lovers meet, each under a blanket; 

9 



14G J/r XATIVE LAND. 

not a word, not a salutation is exchanged; they stand 
near each other for a time and then retire, only to repeat 
the affair day after day. 

At last, upon some favorable night, the Indian youth 
visits the door of her lodge; she comes out and sits 
down on the ground beside him; still no word is spoken. 
At last she arises from the ground ; he also rises, and 
standing before her, throws his blanket over both of them. 
No sooner has he done so than she doffs her blanket, 
letting it fall njion the ground, which is the admission on 
her part that she loves him, and does him obeisance as her 
future lord and master. 

Every Indian camp at night is fulUof such lovers, with 
wooings as sweet, lips as willing, embraces as fond, lives 
as romantic, hearts as true, and elopements as daring and 
desperate as ever graced a Spanish court. The old people 
come together with their friends and hold a council. 
"How many ponies can he pay for her?"' has a good deal 
to do with the eligibility of the suitor. That night he 
brings his articles of do\^"y to the door of his tiancee. If 
the}' are still there next morning, he is rejected: if not, 
accepted. 

No formal marriage ceremony is gone through as a 
rule. The heart is the certiticate and the Great Spirit the 
priest. Under the tribal government of the Indians, the 
rights of women were respected and clearly defined. She 
was the head of the house, and all property, save an insig- 
nificant amount, descended at death to her. She was in 
many tribes personified as the i)rincipal object of worship, 
prayer and adoration, in the tutelary goddess of the tribe. 
Now all is changed. The Indian of to-day is not the 
Indian of fifty years ago, and cannot be studied in the 



TVABDS OF OUR XATIVPJ LA^^D. 147 

same light. His inauiiers, customs and liabits are all 
changed, and polygamy, more and more, creeps in with all 
its appalling degradations. 

On special occasions an entire tribe is gathered under 
an open space in the cottonwoods to celebrate their princi- 
pal dances. Hands are wildly waved above the heads of 
the dancers around a central fire of logs, piled in a conical 
heap. Around this blazing pile runs the dark circle which 
was built at sunset, inclosing sacred ground, whicli must 
not be trespassed on. The old chanter stands at the gate 
of the corral and sings. The men built the dark circle in 
less than an hour. When done, the corral measures forty 
paces in diameter. Around it stands a fence eight feet 
high, with a gate in the east ten feet wide. 

At night-fall many of the Navajo people move, tempo- 
rarily, all their goods and property into the corral, and 
abandon their huts or hogans. Those who do not move 
in are watchers to protect their property, for there are 
thieves among the Navajos. At 8 o'clock a band of 
musician^ enters, and, sitting down, begins a series of 
cacophonous sounds on a drum. As soon as the nmsic 
begins, the great wood pile is lighted. The conflagration 
spreads rapidly and lights the whole landscape and the 
sky. A storm of red, whirling sparks fly upward, like bright 
golden bees from out a hive, to a height of a hundred feet. 
The descending ashes fall in the corral like a light shower 
of snow. The heat soon grows so intense that in the 
remotest parts of the enclosure it is necessary for a person 
to screen his face when he looks towards the fire. 

Suddenly a warning whistle is heard in the outer dark- 
ness, and a dozen forms, lithe and lean, dressed only with 
the narrow white breech-clout and mocassins, and daubed 



148 2IY XATIVF LAXD. 

with white earth until they seem a group of living marbles, 
come bounding through the entrance, yelping like wolves, 
and slowly moving round the fire. As they advance, in 
single file, they throw their bodies into diverse attitudes, 
some graceful, some strained, some difficult, some menac- 
ing, and all grotesque. Now they face the east, now the 
west, now the south, now" the north, bearing aloft their 
slender wands, tipped Avith eagle down, holding and weav- 
ing them with surprising effects. Their course around the 
fire is to the left, east, west, south, north, a course invari- 
ably taken by all the dancers of the night. 

When they have circled the fire twice, they begin ta 
thrust their wands toward it. Their object is to try to 
burn off the tip of eagle down. They dash up to the fire, 
crawl up to it on their faces, run up holding their heads 
sidewise, dart up backward and approach it in all sorts of 
attitudes. Suddenl}', one approaching the flaming pile 
throws himself on his back, with his head to the fire, and 
swiftl}^ thrusts his wand into the flames. Many are the 
unsuccessful attempts, but at length, one by one, they all 
succeed in burning the downy balls from the end of their 
wands. As each accomplishes his feat, it becomes neces- 
sary, as the next duty, to restore the ball of down, which 
is done by refitting the ring held in the hand with down 
upon it, and putting it on the head of the aromatic sumac 
wand. 

The dance customs and ideas differ with the tribes and 
localities. Sometimes the dance is little more than an 
exhibition of powers of endurance. Men or women, or 
both, go throuiih fatiiruino; motions for hours and even 
days in succession, astounding spectators by their disre- 
gard of the traditions of their race, so far as idleness is 



WARDS OF OUR XATIVE LAXD. 140 

concerned. Other dances are grotesque and brutal. On 
special occasions weird ceremonies are indulged in, and the 
proceedings are sensational in the extreme. 

Of the ghost dance and its serious import, readers of 
the daily papers are familiar. Of the war dances of the 
different tribes a great deal has also been written, and 
altogether the dance lore of the American Indian is replete 
with singular incongruities and picturesque anomalies. 
Dancinff with the Indian is often a religious exercise. It 
involves hardship at times, and occasionally the partici- 
pants even mutilate themselves in their enthusiasm. Some 
of the tribes of the Southwest dance, as we shall see 
later, with venomous snakes in their hands, allowing them- 
selves to be bitten, and relying on the power of the priests 
to save them from evil consecjuences. 

The Indians gamble as if l)v instinct. On one occasion 
the writer was visiting a frontier town just after its settle- 
ment. Indians were present in very large numbers, and in 
a variety of ways they got hold of a good deal of money. 
The newcomers from the Eastern States were absolutely 
unprepared for the necessary privations of frontier life. 
Hence they were willing to purchase necessary articles at 
almost any price, while they were easily deluded into 
buying all sorts of articles for which they had no possible 
need. The Indians, who are supposed to be civilized, took 
full advantage of the situation, and brought into town 
everything that was of a salable character, fre(|uently 
obtaining three or four times the local cash value. 

With the money thus obtained they gambled desper- 
ately. One Indian, who boasted of the terrible name of 
*'Cross-Eye," brought in two ponies to sell. One of them 
was an exceptionally ancient-looking animal, which had 



150 MY NATIVE LAND, 

Ions since outlived its usefulness, and which, under ordi- 
nary local conditions, could certainly have been purchased 
for $4.00 or |5.00. A friendly Indian met Mr. "Cross- 
Eye," and a conversation ensued as to the value of the 
pony and the })robable price that it would realize. The two 
men soon got angry on the subject, and finally the owner 
of the pony bet his animal's critic the pony against $20.00 
that it would realize at least the last-named sum. 

With this extra stimulus for driving a good bargain, 
the man offered his pony to a number of white men, and 
finallv found one who needed an animal at once, and who 
was willing to pay $20.00 for the antiquated quadruped. 
"Cross-Eye" nuide a number of guttural noises indicative 
of his delight, and promptly collected the second $20.00. 
He had thus practically sold a worthless pony for 
$40.00, and had it not been for his innate passion for 
samblino;, would have done a very i2:ood day's business. A 
few hours later, however, he was found looking very 
disconsolate, and trying very hard to sell some supposed 
curiosities for a few dollars with which to buy a blanket he 
sorely needed. His impecuniosity was easily explained. 
Instead of proceeding at once to sell his second pou}', he 
turned his attention first to gambling, and in less than an 
hour his last dollar had gone. Then, with the gamester's 
desperation, he had put up his second pony as a final 
stake, with the result that he lost his money and his stock 
in trade as well. He took the situation philosophically 
and stoically, but when he found it impossible in the busy 
pioneer town to get even the price of a drink of whisky 
for his curiosities, he began to get reckless, and was 
finally escorted out of the town by two or three of his 
friends to prevent him getting mixed up in a fight. 



WARDS OF OUR XATIVE LAXD. 151 

When the liicliaiis have enough energy they gamble 
almost day and night. The women themselves are gener- 
ally kept under sufficient subjection by their husbands to 
make gambling on their part impossible, so far as the 
actual playing of games of chance is concerned. But they 
stand by and watch the men. They stake their necklaces, 
leggings, ornaments, and in fact, their all, on the play, 
which is done sometimes with blue wild plum-stones, 
hieroglyphically charactered, and sometimes with playing 
bones, but oftener with common cards. Above the ground 
the tom-tok would be sounded, but below ground the tom- 
tom was buried. 

An Indian smokes incessantly while he gambles. 
Putting the cigarette or cis-ar to his mouth he draws in the 
smoke in long, deep breaths, until he has filled his lungs 
completely, when he begins slowly to emit the smoke from 
his nose, little b}^ little, until it is all gone. The object of 
this with the Indian is to steep his senses more deeply with 
the narcotizing soporific. The tobacco they smoke is 
generally their own raising. 

"The thing that moved me most," writes a traveler, 
describing a visit to an Indian gambling den, "was the 
spectacle in the furthest corner of the 'shack' of an Indian 
mother, with a pappoose in its baby-case peeping over her 
back. There she stood behind an Indian gambler, to 
whom she had joined her life, painted and l)ead('d and half 
intoxicated. The Indian husband had already i)ut his 
saddle in pawn to the white professional gambler for his 
$5.00, and it was not tive minutes before the white 
gambler had the saddle and $5.00 both. Then, when 
they had nothing else left to bet, so intense was their 
love for gambling, they began to put themselves in pawn. 



152 3fY XATIVE LAXD. 

piecemeal, saving: 'I'll bet you my whole hody.' That 
means 'I'll put myself in pawn to you as your slave to 
serve you as you will for a speciticd time.' 

"So it was that this Indian mother stood leaning; back 
wearily a against the wall, half drunk and dazed with smoke 
and heat, when all at once the Indian who lived with her 
said to her in Indian : 'Put in the baby for a week. 
Then pay-day will come.' It was done. The baby was 
handed over. That is what civilization has done for the 
Indian. Its virtues escapes him; its vices inoculate him." 

One of these vices is gambling. The Indian is kept 
poor all the 3^ear round and plucked of every pinfeather. 
That is the principal reason wh}' he steals, not only to 
reimburse himself for loss, but also to avenge himself 
upon the white man, who he knows Vt^ell enough has 
constantly robbed him. 

Gambling, as witnessed in the Indian camp at night, is 
a very different affair from the cache. The tom-tom 
notities all that the bouts with fortune are about to begin. 
During the game the music is steadily kept up. In the 
intervals between the games the players all sing. Crowds 
surround the camp. When a man loses heavily the whole 
camp knows it in a few minutes, and not infrequently the 
wife rushes in and puts a stop to the stake by driving her 
chief away. Gambling is the great winter game. It is 
often played from morning till night, and right along all 
niirht lono-. Cheatiuij and trickery of every sort are 
practiced. 

"Lizwin" or "mescal'' are the two drinks made by the 
Indians themselves, one from corn and the other from the 
"maguay" plant. The plains Indians drink Avhisky. To 
o-amble is to drink, and to drink is to lose. Gambling is 



WARDS OF OUR XATIVE LAXD. 153 

the hardest work that joii can persuade an Indian to do, 
unless threatened by starvation. Different tribes gamble 
differently. 

The Comanches, undoubtedly, have by far the most 
exciting and fascinating gambling games. The Comanche 
puzzles, tricks and problems are also decidedly superior 
to those of any other nation. The gambling bone is used 
by the Comanches. The leader of the game holds it up 
before the eyes of all, so that all can sec it; he then 
closes his two hands over it, and manipulates it so 
dexterously in his fingers that it is simply impossible to 
tell which hand the bone is in. In a moment he suddenl}' 
flings each closed hand on either side of him down into the 
outreaching hand of the player next to him. 

The game commences at this point. The whole line of 
players passes, or pretends to pass, this bone on from one 
to another, until at last every hand is waving. All this 
time the eyes along the opposite line of gamblers are 
eagerly watching each shift and movement of the hands, 
in hopes of discovering the white flash of the bone. At 
last some one descries the hand that holds the bone, or 
thinks so. He points out and calls out for his side. The 
hand must instantly be thrown up. If it is right, the 
watching side scores a point and takes the bone. The 
sides change off in this way until the game is won. 
The full score is twenty-one points. The excitement pro- 
duced by this game is at times simply indescribable. 

The Utes play with two bones in each hand, one of 
which is wrapped about with a string. The game is to 
guess the hand that holds the wrapped bone. The plum- 
stone game is played by the plains Indians. It is only 
another name for dice throwino;. The plum-stones are 



154 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

graved with hioroglypliics, and couuts are curiously made 
in a way that often defies computation by white men. 
The women gamble quite as much as the men, Avhen they 
dare, and jrrow even more excited over the oanie than their 
lords. Their game, as witnessed among the Cheyennes, 
is played with beads, little loops aud long horn sticks 
made of deer foot. 

The children look on and learn to gamble from their 
earliest childhood, and soon learn to cheat and impose on 
their juniors. Their little juvenile gambling operations 
are done principally with arrows. Winter breeds sloth, 
and sloth begets gambling, and gambling, drink. There 
is no conviviality in Indian drinking bouts. The Indian 
gets drunk, and dead drunk, as soon as he possibly can, 
and liuds his highest enjoyment in sleeping it off. Ilis 
nature reacts viciously under drink, however, in many 
cases, and he is then a dangerous customer. 

The women of many tribes are a most pitiable lot of 
hard working, ragged and dirty humanity. Upon them 
falls all the drudgery of the camp; they are * 'hewers of 
wood and drawers of water," and bend under immense 
burdens piled upon their backs, while thousands of ponies 
browse, undisturbed, in every direction. As the troops 
are withdrawn, the squaws swoop down upon the deserted 
camps, and rapidly glean them of all that is portable, for 
use in their domestic economy. An Indian tire would be 
considered a very cheerless affair by the inmates of houses 
heated by modern appliances ; but such as it is — a few 
sticks burning Avith feeble blaze and scarcely penetrating 
the dense smoke tilling the tepee from the ground to the 
small opening at the top — it consumes fuel, and the de- 
mand is always greater than the supply, for the reason 



WAIWS OF OUR XATIVE LAND. 155 

that an Indian has no idea of preparation for future neces- 
sities. If the fire burns, all ri^ht; when the last stick is 
laid on, a squaw will start for a fresh supply, no matter 
how cold and stormy the weather may bo. 

The poetical Indian maiden may still exist in the vivid 
imagination of extreme youth, but she is not common 
to-day. The young girls affect gay attire, and are exempt 
from the hardships of toil Avhich are imposed on their 
elder sisters, mothers and grandanis, but their fate is 
infinitely worse. Little beauty is to be discerned among 
them, and in this regard time seems to have effaced the 
types which were prevalent a few years ago. 

Annuity day is a great event in the life of every Agency 
Indian, and if the reader would see Indian life represented 
in some of its most interesting features, there is no more 
suitable time to select for a visit to any Agency. It is a 
"grand opening," attended by the Avhole tribe; but the 
squaws do not enjoy quite the freedom of choice in the 
matter of dress goods, or receive such prompt attention 
from the clerks as our city ladies are accustomed to. 
Even at 1) o'clock in the morninir, notwithstandino; the 
fact that the actual distribution would not take place until 
noon, the nation's wards are there, patiently waiting for 
the business of the day to begin. Stakes have been driven 
into the ground to nuirk the space to be occupied by each 
band, and behind them, arranged in a semicircle, are the 
different families, under the charge of a head man. The 
bands vary in mimbers, both of families and individuals, 
but they all look equally solemn as they sit on the ground, 
with their knees drawn up under their chins, or cross- 
legged like Turks and tailors. 

The scene now becomes one of bustle and activity on 



15G MY NATIVE LAJSTD. 

the part of the Agency people, who begin rapidly filling 
wagon after wagon with goods from the store-houses. 
Blankets of dark blue material, cotton cloth, calico of all 
colors and patterns, red flannel, gay woolen shawls, boots 
and shoes that make one's feet ache to look at them, 
coffee pots, water buckets, axes, and numerous other 
articles, are piled into each wagon in the proportion pre- 
viously determined by conference with the head men. A 
ticket is then given to the driver, bearing the number of 
the stake and the name of the head man. Away goes the 
v>'agon ; the goods are thrown out on the ground in a pile 
at the proper stake, and that completes the formal transfer 
to the head man, who then takes charge of them, and, 
with the assistance of a few of the bucks designated by 
himself, divides the various articles, according to the 
wants of the families and the amount of goods supplied. 

During the rush and fury of the issue and division of 
the goods, the sombre figures in the background have 
scarcely moved. Not one has ventured to approach the 
center where the bucks are at work, measuring off the 
cloth, etc. ; the}^ are waiting for the tap of the bell, when 
they will receive just what the head man chooses to give 
them. There is no system of exchange there; it is take 
what you get or get nothing. In a great many cases they 
do not use the goods at all, but openly offer them for sale 
to the whites, who, no doubt, find it profitable to jDurchase 
at Indian prices. 

As soon as the issue is completed, a crowd of Indians 
gather in front of the trader's store to indulge their 
passion for gambling, and in a short space of time a num- 
ber of blankets and other articles change hands on the 
result of pony races, foot races or any other species of 



WAIiB6' OF OUR XATIVE LAND. 157 

excitement that can be invented. There is a white man on 
the ground who is, no doubt, a professional runner, and 
the Indians back their favorite against him in a jjursc of 
over $30.00, which the wliite man covers, and wins 
the race l)y a few inches. The Indians will not give up, 
and make similar purses on the two succeeding days, only 
to lose by an inch or two. There is a master of ceremo- 
nies, who displays a wonderful control over the Indians. 
He makes all the bets for the red men, collecting different 
amounts for a score or more, but never forgetting a single 
item or person. 

Ration day brings out the s(|uaws and dogs in full 
force; the one to pack the rations to camp, and the latter 
to pick up stray bits. A few at a time the S(]uaws enter 
the store-house and receive their week's supply of flour, 
coffee, sugar, salt, etc., for themselves and families. The 
beef is issued directly from the slaughter-house, and the 
proceeding is anything but appetizing to w^atch. The 
beeves to l)e killed are first driven into a corral, where they 
are shot by the Indian butchers ; when the poor beasts 
have been shot to death, they are dragged to the door of 
the slaughter-house and passed through the hands of half- 
naked bucks, who seem to glory in the profusion of blood, 
and eagerly seek the position on account of the perquisites 
attached to it in the way of tempting (?) morsels which 
usually go to the dogs or on the refuse hea[). The beef 
is issued as fast as it can be cut up, at the rate of half a 
pound a day for each person, regardless of age; bacon is 
also issued as a part of the meat ration. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CIVILIZATION ACTl'AL AND ALLEGED. 

Tried in the Balances and Found Wanting — Indian Archers — Bow 
and Arrow Lore — Barbarous Customs that Die Slowlv — "'Great 
Wolf," the Indian ^'anderbilt — How the Seii were Taught a 
\'aluable Lesson — Playing with Rattlesnakes witii Iinpunitv. 

TIROES Prohibit iou prohibit ? is a question politicians 
^^^ and social reformers ask again and again. Does 
civilization civilize? is a question Avhich is asked almost 
exclusively by persons who are interested in the welfare of 
the American Indian, and who come in daily contact 
with him. 

In the jireceding chapter we have seen some little of 
the peculiar habits of the American Indian, civilized and 
otherwise, and it will be interesting now to see to what 
extent the white man's teaching has driven away primeval 
habits of living, hunting and lighting. Within the last 
few we<^ks, evidence of a most valuable character on this 
question has been furnished by the re}u>rt submitted to 
the Secretary of the Interior by the Commission sent to 
investigate matters concerning the live civilized tribes of 
Indians in the Indian Territory. This says that they have 
demonstrated their incapacity to govern themselves, and 
rccommcuils that the trust that has been reposed in them 
by the Government should bo revoked. 

The courts of justice have become helples>s and par- 
alyiced. Murder, A'iolence and robbery are an every-day 
occurrence. It was learned by the Commission that 

(158) 



CIVILIZATION— Actual and Alleged. l'>9 

fifty-three murders occurrod in tlio months of Sei)tenibcr 
and October in one tribe only, and not one of the ('ul{)rits 
WHS brought to justice. The Dawes Commission recom- 
mends that a large i)ortion of the Indian reservation be 
annexed to Oklahoma; this action to be followed by form- 
incr that country into a Territory. But to accomplish this, 
it would be necessary that the consent of the Indians be 
obtained, and this is doubtful. 

The statement that the Indians have cast aside their 
ancient weapons and adopted more modern ones, and that, 
through the use of them, they are gradually extending 
their hunting grounds beyond the lines of their reserva- 
tions, is false. The report of the Commission makes this 
clearly known. Tliroughout the West the Indians still 
trust to their bows and arrows. On the northwest coast 
most of the Indians live by hunting and fishing. They 
use principally the bow and arrow, knife, war club and 
lance. In the North Pacific; Ocean are several islands 
inhabited only by Indians. In the Queen Charlotte and 
the Prince of Wales Archipelago is found one of the most 
remarkable races of aborigines on the American continent. 
These are the Ilaida tribes, and consist of strikingh" 
intelligent Indians. They acquire knowledge readily ; 
learn trades and exhibit much ingenuity in following the 
teachings of missionaries and traders. But for all that, 
they still eling with something bordering upon affection to 
the primitive Avetipons of their race. 

During the long winter nights the old Indians seat 
themselves before the fire and carve bows, ornament club 
handles, and feather and point arrows. Perhaps in some 
of tl>-e tepees hang polished guns furnished by the Govern- 
ment, but they are more for ornament than use. This 



160 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

evening work is accompanied by the low croaking of some 
old Indian, who tells over again the legends, folk-lore and 
nursery tales of their grandfathers and grandmothers. 

The Haida tribe is more rapidly advancing in civiliza- 
tion than any of its neighbors, yet they still carve and 
paint bows, arrows, club handles and paddles. The Indians 
still cling to other rude implements and take not kindly 
to metal ones. Rude knives are still used for skinning 
deer, especially by the old Indians. The axe, of course, is 
employed for cutting trees and excavating canoes and 
mortars. It has really taken the place of the stone chisel, 
yet many old men prefer burning the roots of the tree 
until it can be made to fall by giving it a few hacks with 
the rude stone hatchet. 

In archery, the Indian has scarcely been excelled. 
With a quick eye and a powerful muscle, he sends the 
arrow as unerringly as the archers of olden time. 

The Indian bow is usually from three and one-half to 
four feet in length, with such a difficult spring that one 
with no experience can scarcely bend it sufficiently to set 
the string. Different tribes, of course, carry bows of dif- 
ferent lengths, the Senecas having the longest. The best 
of woods for making bows are Osage orange, hickory, ash, 
elm, cedar, plum and cherry; some of these are strength- 
ened with sinews and glue. Almost every tribe has three 
sizes, the largest being used for war purposes, and until 
an Indian can handle this war bow, he is not considered 
entitled to be called a warrior. 

Some claim the Sioux and the Crows make the best 
bows, although the Apaches come close in the rank. 
When the Sioux bow is unstrung, it is a straight piece of 
wood, while the Apaches and the Southern Indians make a 




Ri\ Uqcivili7.ed Savage. 



CIVILIZATIOX— Actual and Alleged. 1G3 

perfect Cupid's bow. The Crows often use elk horns as 
material, and carve them beautifully. The Sioux, to make 
the straight piece of wood more elastic, string the backs 
with sinews. Often these are beautifully beaded and 
leathered, quite equaling, as a piece of art, the elaborate 
elk horn bows made by the Crows. The Comanches' 
bows are covered with sinew, much like those of the 
Apaches. The object of practice is to enable the bowman 
to draw the bow with sudden and instant effect. It is 
seldom that the Indian has need of throwing; the arrow to 
a great distance. 

The bow of the Western Indian is small and apparently 
insignilicant, though its owner makes it very powerful, 
indeed. From his babyhood days he has habituated it to 
his use, until it has become, as it were, a very part of his 
nature. The Indian studies to get the greatest power out 
of the smallest possible compass, and he finds a short bow 
on horseback far more easily used and much more reliable 
in its execution. In the Far West, bows are made largely 
of ash, and arc lined with layers of buffalo or deer sinews 
on the back. The Blackfeet have in use very valuable 
bows of bone. Other tribes make use of the horns of 
mountain sheep. Sometimes the bone bows will fetch very 
large sums of money, and deals have been noticed in which 
the consideration for one of them was a pair of ponies, 
with five pounds of butter thrown in as make-weight. 

An athletic Indian on a fleet horse can do terrible 
execution with one of these bows, which, even in these 
days of repeating rifles, is by no means to be despised as a 
weapon. No one can estimate the force of a throw from 
one of them when an artistic archer is in charofe. The 
effects from a wound from an arrow are so distressins: that 

10 



1G4 MT NATIVE LAND. 

it is quite common to accuse an Indian of using poisoned 
arrows, when possibly such a fiendish idea never entered 
his head. Only those who have ridden side by side with 
an Indian hunter really know how much more powerful 
an arrow shot is than the average man supposes. 

In war the Indians would even now arm themselves in 
part with bow, quiver, lance, war club and shield. The 
Northwestern tribes are partial to fighting with the bow and 
lance, protected with a shield. This shield is worn out- 
side of the left arm, after the manner of the Roman and 
Grecian shield. 

The Western Indians are fonder of horseback ridinsf 
than the Eastern tribes, and have learned to wield their 
weapons while mounted. They are taught to kill game 
while running at full speed, and prefer to fight on horse- 
back. Some of them are great cowards when dismounted, 
but seated on an Indian pony they are undaunted. 

It is a mistake to suppose that arrow-heads are no 
longer manufactured ; the art of fashioning them is not 
lost. Almost every tribe manufactures its own. Bowlders 
of flint are broken with a sledge-hammer made of a 
rounded pebble of hornstone set in a twisted withe. This 
bone is thought to be the tooth of the sperm whale. In 
Oregon the Indian arrow is still pointed with flint. The 
Iroquois also used flint until they laid aside the arrow for 
the lack of anything to hunt. The Iroquois youth, though 
the rifle has been introduced largely into his tribe, will 
have none of it, but takes naturally to the bow and arrow. 
Steel for arrow-heads is furnished by the fur-traders in the 
Rocky Mountains, and iron heads are often made from old 
barrel hoops, fashioned with a piece of sandstone. 
In shooting with the bow and arrow on horseback, the 



CIVILIZATIOX— Actual and Alleged. 1G5 

Indian horse is taught to approach the animal attacked on 
the right side, enabling its rider to throw the arrow to the 
left. Buffalo Bill was an adept at slaughtering game on 
horseback, and he won his great bet at killing the greatest 
number of buffaloes, by following the custom of the 
Indians and shooting to the left. The horse approaches 
the animal, his halter hanging loose upon his neck, bring- 
ing the rider within three or four paces of the game, when 
the arrow or rifle ball is sent with ease and certainty 
through the heart. 

Indians who have the opportunity to ride nowadays, 
still exercise with a lance twelve or fifteen feet in length. 
In their war games and dances they always appear with 
this lance and shield. The spears are modern and have a 
blade of polished steel, and the shields are made of skin. 
Those of old make are of buffalo neck. The skin is 
soaked and hardened with a glue extracted from the hoofs. 
The shields are arrow-proof, and will throw off a rifle shot 
if held obliquely, and this the Indian can do with great 
skill. Since there is no war or the occasion for the use of 
these arms, except in games of practice, many of the 
Indians, for a few bottles of "fire water," have sold their 
best shields, and now they are seen scattered over the 
country, preserved as curios. 

It is folly to assume that the Indians have wholly or 
partly done away with their barbaric customs. In their 
celebrations it is their great joy to cast oif their clothing 
and to paint their bodies all colors of the rainl)ow, wear 
horns on their heads and make themselves look as hideous 
as possible. The arrow game is introduced — never are 
there demonstrations with the modern weapons — and the 
man is esteemed above all others who can throw the 



166 MY NATIVE LAND. 

greatest number of arrows in the sky before the first one 
falls. In hunting, the Sioux kill muskrats with spears, as 
they did in early days spear the buffaloes, managing to get 
close to them by being dressed in wolf skin, and going on 
all fours. There are Indians w^ho would, on horseback, 
attack and kill a bear with a lance, but are afraid to molest 
the animal unless they have the Indian pony as a means of 
escape. 

The arrow-heads of chert used for hunting are pecul- 
iarly fastened, in order to make the arrow revolve. The 
Indian feathers the arrow for the same purpose, and also 
carves the arrow shaft with a spiral groove. This is not, 
as has been supposed, to let the blood out of the wound, 
but to make the arrow carry. 

Every tribe has its own arrow. It is claimed that the 
Pawnees are the best manufacturers. The Comanches 
feather their arrows with two feathers; the Navajos, 
Utes and all Apaches, except the Tontos, have three 
feathers — the Tontos using four feathers for each shaft. 
The bird arrow is the very smallest made. 

" I have practiced" says one traveler, " for hours with 
the Utes, uselessly trying to blame the twist of the feath- 
ered arrow for my bad shots. The Indians say the carving 
and feathers are so arranged as to give the arrow the cor- 
rect motion, and one old chief on seeing the twist in the 
rifle barrel by which the ball is made to revolve in the 
same manner, claimed that the white man stole his idea 
from the Indian." 

Stones, with grooves around their greatest circumfer- 
ence, are secured to a handle by a withe or thong and 
become war clubs. They are dangerous weapons in the 
hand of an Indian. Tomahawks, manufactured by white 



C I VILIZATIOX— Actual and Alleged. 167 

•men, have succeeded the war club in a way, as it is claimed 
the rifle has the bow and arrow. Recent tomahawks 
taken from the Indians bear an English trade-mark. They 
originally cost about 15 cents, and were sold to the Indians 
for nothing less than a horse, and perhaps two. 

Chief "Wolf," an Indian Croesus, and the Vanderbilt of 
the red men, though he is worth over $500,000 and drives 
at times in an elegant coach, clings closely to his tepee, 
ever demonstrating the savage part of his life. 

He lives at Fishhook Bay, on the Snake River, in the 
State of Washington. He is of the Palouse Snake Indians, 
and though he has a comfortable house, he never sleeps 
there, but goes to the tepee, no matter how inclement the 
weather. In the days when the buffalo were plenty, 
*'Wolf" was a oreat hunter. He tells a tale of driving 
3,000 bison over a bluff near the Snake, where they were 
all killed by the fall. This is supposed to be true, because 
until late years the place was a mass of bones. Though 
he has his guns and all the modern fire-arms, both he 
and his children cling to the primitive Aveapons of war. 

The correspondence between the Governments of the 
United States and Mexico over the brutal murder of two 
men by the Seri Indians, seems to show that some at least 
of the North American Indians have gained nothing at all 
from the civilizing intluences which are supposed to have 
extended for so many years. The deed had no other 
motive than pure fiendishness. Small as is the tribe of 
Seris — they number only about 200 souls — these savages 
are the most blood-thirsty in North America. For a long 
time they have terrorized Sonora, but the Mexican Govern- 
ment seems powerless to control them. 

The tribe was visited recently by an expedition from 



168 JIY XATIVE LAXD. 

the Bureau of Ethnology, which has just returned to 
Washington with some very interesting information. 
Prof. W. J. McGee, who led the party, says: "It is 
understood that the Seris are cannibals — at all events they 
eat every white man they can slay. They are cruel and 
treacherous beyond description. Toward the white man, 
their attitude is exactly the same as that of a white man 
toward a rattlesnake — they kill him as a matter of course, 
unless restrained by fear. Never do they fight in open 
warfare, but always lie in ambush. They are copper- 
colored Ishmaelites. It is their custom to murder every- 
body, white, red or Mexican, who ventures to enter the 
territory they call their own." 

In many respects the Seris are the most interesting 
tribe of savages in North America. They are decidedly 
more primitive in their way than any other Indians, having 
scarcely any arts worth mentioning. In fact, they have 
not yet advanced as far as the stone age. The only stone 
implement in common use among them is a rude hammer 
of that material, which they employ for beating clay to 
make a fragile and peculiar kind of pottery. When one 
of the squaws wishes to make meal of mesquite beans, and 
she has no utensil for the purpose, she looks about until 
she finds a rock with an upper surface, conveniently hol- 
low, and on this she places the beans, pounding them with 
an ordinary stone. 

The Seris live on the Island of Tiburon, in the Gulf of 
California. They also claim 5,000 S(]uare miles of the 
mainland in Sonora. Their dwellings arc the rudest im- 
aginable. A chance rock commonly serves for one wall of 
the habitation ; stones are piled up so as to make a small 
enclosure, and the shell of a single great turtle does for 



CIVILIZATIOX—Actual and Alleged. 1G9 

a roof. The house is ahvajs open ou one side, and is 
not intended as a shelter from storms, but chiefly to keep 
oif the sun. The men and women wear a single garment 
like a petticoat, made of pelican skin; the children are 
naked. Not far from Tiburon, which is about thirty miles 
long by fifteen miles wide, there is a smaller island Avhere 
pelicans roost in vast numbers. The Seris go at night and 
with sticks knock over as many birds as they require. 

These Indians are fond of carrion. It makes no differ- 
ence to them whether a horse has died a natural death a 
week or a month ago, they devour the flesh greedily. The 
feet of the animal they boil until those parts are tender 
enough to bite. The Seris are among the very dirtiest 
of savages. Their habits in all respects are filthy. They 
seem to have almost no amusements, though the children 
play with the very rudest dolls. Before the whites came 
they used pieces of shells for cutting instruments. They 
are accustomed to killing deer by running and surrounding 
the animals. No traditions of sufficient interest to justify 
recording in print appear to exist among these people. 
The most interesting ornament seen on any member of the 
tribe was a necklace of human hair, adorned with the 
rattles of rattlesnakes, which abound in the territory 
infested with these remnants of all that is most objection- 
able among the aboriginal red men of this continent. 

Physically speaking, the Seris are most remarkable. 
They are of great stature, the men averaging nearly six 
feet in height, with splendid chests. But the most 
noticeable point about them is their legs, which are very 
slender and sinewy, resembling the legs of the deer. 
Since the first coming of the Spaniards the}" have been 
known to other tribes as the runners. It is said that they 



170 J/r XATIVE LAXD. 

can run from ITjO to 200 miles per day, Dot pausino: for 
rest. The jack rabbit is considered a very fleet animal, 
yet these Indians are accustomed to catch jack rabbits by 
outrunning them. 

For this purpose, three men or boys go together. If 
the rabbit ran straight away from the pursuer it could not 
be taken, but its instinct is to make its Hight by zigzags. 
The hunters arrange themselves a short distance apart. 
As quickly as one of them starts a rabbit, a second Indian 
I'uns as fast as ho can along a lino jiarallcl with the course 
taken l)y the animal. Presently the rabbit sees the second 
Indian, and dashes off at a tangent. By this time the 
third hunter has come up and gives the quarry another 
turn. After the third or fourth zigzag, the rabbit is sur- 
rounded, and the hunters quickly close in upon him and 
grab him. 

It is an odd fact that this nu^thod of catching jack 
rabbits is precisely the same as that adopted by coyotes, 
which work similarily l)y threes. By this strategy, 
these wild dogs capture the rabbits, though the latter 
arc nun'o fleet by far. It is believed that no other human 
being aj)proachcs the Scris in celerity of movement. A 
favorite sport of the boys is lassoing dogs. INIongrel curs 
are the only aninuds domesticated by these wild people. 
For anmsement sake, the boys take their dogs to a clear 
place and drive them in all directions, then they capture 
the frightened animals by running and throwing the lassos, 
which arc made of human hair. They have no dithculty 
in overtaking the dogs. 

One day, a party of boys returning with their dogs 
after a bout i»f this sport, passed near a bush in which 
there were three ov four blackbirils ; on spying the birds, 



CIVILIZATION— Actual and Alleged. 171 

they dashed tovviird the bush and tried to catch them with 
their hands; they did not succeed, though one of the 
birds only escaped with the loss of several feathers. 
Some women of the tribe were watching, and they actually 
jeered at the boys for their failure. The boys were so 
mortified that they did not go into camp, but went off and 
sat by themselves in the shade of a grease wood bush. 
What white man or boy would think of catching black- 
birds in such a way? Yet non-success in an attempt of 
that kind was the exception and not the rule. The Seris 
often take birds in this fashion. 

Seuor Encinas was the pioneer in that region. He 
found good grazing country in the territory claimed by 
the Seris, and so established his stock farm there. He 
brought priests with him to convert the savages, and 
caught a couple of the latter to educate as interpreters. 
The plan for civilizing the Indians proved a failure. They 
did not care to become Christians, and they killed the 
Senor's stock. So, finally, the Seuor decided to adopt a 
new course of procedure. He summoned the Indians to 
a council, as many of them as would come, and informed 
them that from that time on he and his vaqueros would 
slay an Indian for every head of cattle that was killed. 
At the same time he sent away the priests and engaged an 
additional number of vaqueros. 

The Indians paid no attention to the warning, and a 
few days later they killed several head of cattle. Without 
delay the Senor and his men coralled and killed a corre- 
sponding number of the Seris. Then there was war. 
The savages made ambushes, but they had only bows and 
arrows, and the vaqueros fought bravely with their guns. 
Every ambush turned out disastrously fur the Indians. 



172 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

Finally, the Seris made a great ambush, and there was a 
battle which resulted in the killing of sixty-five savages. 
The lesson proved suflicient, and the Indians were glad to 
conclude a permanent peace, agreeing that no further 
depredations against the Senor or his property should be 
attempted. From beginning to end the fighting lasted ten 
years. 

After the killing of the two Americans, the Seris were 
very much afraid of reprisals. For a good while they did 
not dare to come to the ranch of SeFior Encinas, but at 
length one old woman came for the philosophical purpose 
of seeing^ if she would be killed. She was well treated and 
went away. Eventually confidence was restored, and about 
sixty of the savages Avere visiting on the premises. 

No other people in North America have so few concep- 
tions of civilization as the Seris. Thc}^ have absolutely no 
agriculture. As well as can be ascertained they never put 
a seed into the ground or cultivate a plant. They live 
almost wholly on fish, water fowl, and such game as they 
kill on the main land. The game includes large deer, like 
black tails, and exquisite species of dwarf deer, about 
the size of a three months' fawn, pecarries, wild turkeys, 
prairie dogs, rabbits and quail. They take very large 
green turtles in the Gulf of California. Mesquite beans 
they eat both cooked and raw. The mesquite is a small 
tree that bears seeds in pods. 

The snake dance is another evidence of the comparative 
failure of civilization to civilize. This is seen chiefly in 
the vicinity of the Grand Canon of the Colorado. 
Venomous rattlesnakes are used in the dance, which is 
an annual affair. Hundreds of snakes are caught for the 
occasion, and when the great day arrives the devotees rush 



CIVILIZATIOX— Actual and Alleged. 173 

into the coiTiil and each seizes a rattler for his purpose. 
Reliable authorities, who have witnessed this dance, 
vouch for the fact that the snakes are not in any way 
robbed of their power to implant their poisonous fangs 
into the flesh of the dancers. It even appears as though 
the greater the number of bites, the more delighted are the 
participants, who hold the reptiles in the most careless 
manner and allow them to strike where they will, and to 
plant their horrible fangs into the most vulnerable parts 
with impunity. When the dance is over, the snakes are 
taken back to the woods and given their liberty, the super- 
stition prevailing that for the space of one year the 
reptiles will protect the tribe from all ill or suffering. 

The main interest attached to this dance is the secret 
of why it is the dancers do not die promptly. No one 
doubts the power of the rattlesnake to kill. Liberal 
potations of whisky are supposed by some people to serve 
as an antidote, while Mexicans and some tribes of Indians 
claim to have knowledge of a herb which will also prolong 
the life of a man stung by a snake and apparently doomed 
to an early death. Tradition tells us that for the purposes 
of this dance, a special antidote has been handed down 
from year to year, and from generation to generation, by 
the priests of the Moquis. It is stated that one of the 
patriarchs of old had the secret imparted to him under 
pledges and threats of inviolable secrecy. By him it has 
been perpetuated with great care, being always known to 
three persons, the high priest of the tribe, his vice-regent 
and proclaimed successor, and the oldest woman among 
them. On the death of any one of the three trustees of 
the secret, the number is made up in the manner ordered 
by the rites of the tril)al religion, and to reveal the 



174 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

secret in any other war is to iuvite a sudden and an awful 
death. 

During the three days spent by the dancers in hunting 
snakes, it is stated that the secret decoction is freely 
administered to them, and that in consequence they handle 
the reptiles with perfect confidence. "When they are bitten 
there is a slight irritation but nothing worse. On the 
other hand, there is often a heavy loss of life during: the 
year from snake bites, for the sacred antidote is only used 
on the stated occasion for which it w^as, so the legend runs, 
specially prepared or its nature revealed. 

The people living w^ithin almost sight of the Grand 
Canon vary as much in habits and physique as does the 
scenery and general contour of the canon vary in appear- 
ance. The Cliif Dwellers and the Pueblos do not as a 
rule impress the stranger with their physical development, 
nor are they on the average exceptionally tall or heayy. 
There are, however, small tribes in which physical devel- 
opment has been, and still is, a great feature. Unlike the 
Pueblos, these larger men wear little clothing, so that their 
muscular development and the size of their limbs are more 
conspicuous. Naturally skilled hunters, these powerful 
members of the human race climb up and down the most 
dangerous precipices, and lead an almost ideal life in the 
most inaccessible of spots. 

The Maricopa Indians must be included among those 
whose general appearance seems to invite admiration, how- 
ever much one may regret the absence of general civiliza- 
tion and education. These men are for the most part 
honest, if not hard working, and they are by no means 
unpleasant neighbors. Right near them are the homes of 
smaller Indians, who have reduced peculation to a fine art, 



CIV I LIZ AT I OX— Actual and Alleged. 175 

and who steal on general principles. We have all heard of 
the little boy who prefers to steal poor apples from his 
neighbor's tree to picking up good ones in his father's 
orchard. Much the same idea seems to prevail among 
these Indians. They will frequently spend several hours, 
and even the greater portion of a day, maneuvering to 
secure some small article worth but a few cents to any one. 
They have a way of ingratiating themselves with white 
tourists, and offering to act as guides not only to spots of 
special beauty, but also to mines of great value. When 
they succeed in convincing strangers of their reliability, 
they are happy, and at once proceed to exhibit the pecaliar 
characteristics of their race. Pocket handkerchiefs, stock- 
iuffs and hats are believed to be the articles after which 
they seek with the most vigor. They are, however, not 
particular as to what they secure, and anything that is left 
unguarded for but a few hours, or even minutes, is certain 
to be missed. The perquisites thus obtained or retained 
are regarded as treasure trove. When first charged with 
having stolen anything, they deny all knowledge of the 
offense, and protest their innocence in an amusing man- 
ner. When, however, convincing proof is obtained, and 
the missing article discovered, the convicted thief thinks 
the matter a good joke, and laughs most heartily at the 
credulity and carelessness of the white man. 



CHAPTER X. 

OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 

Houses on Rocks and Sand Hills — How Many Families Dwelt Together 
in Unity — Peculiarities of Costumes — Pueblo Architecture and Folk 
Lore — A Historic Struggle and How it Ended — Legends Concern- 
ing Montezuma — Curious Religious Ceremonies. 

H^ERHAPS the most peculiar people to be found in 
ll^ our native land are the Pueblos, who live in 
New Mexico between the Grande and Colorado Rivers. 
When Coronado, the great explorer, marched through the 
territory 450 years ago, he found these people in a condi- 
tion of at least comparative civilization. They were 
livins: in large houses, each capable of accommodating 
several families, and solidly built. Although they had 
wandering bands of robbers for their nearest neighbors, 
they were able to defend themselves against all comers, and 
were content and prosperous. Their weapons, although 
primitive, were quite scientific, and were handled with 
much skill as well as bravery. 

For two 3^ears they were able to withstand the Spanish 
invaders in their "casas-grandes." It had been reported 
to the Spanish commanders that several hundred miles in 
the north lay a great empire named Cibola, which had seven 
laro-e cities. In these were lono; streets, on which onlv 
gold and silversmiths resided; imposing palaces towered 
in the suburbs, with doors and columns of pure turquoise; 
the windows were made of precious stones brilliantly pol- 
ished. At the sumptuous feasts of the prince of the land, 

(ITS) 



OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 177 

enchanting slaves served the most delicate dainties on 
golden dishes. There were mountains of opal rising above 
valleys reveling in jewels, with crystal streams, whose 
bottom consisted of pure silver sand. 

The disappointment of the Spaniards was great. A 
number of large Indian villages were found, whose inhabi- 
tants subsisted upon the fruits of a primitive agriculture. 
The frugality and thrift of the Pueblos excited the interest 
of the voluptuous Spaniards. The peculiar architecture of 
the villages and houses also drew their admiration. Taken 
as a whole, the circles of houses resembled the cells of a 
wasp's nest, of which the upper stories were reached on a 
crude ladder. Entrance could be gained only through a 
small opening in the roof, not even the sides facing the 
streets containing doors. A few heavily grated windows 
served as port-holes for their arrows. These peculiar con- 
structions of baked clay are still fashionable in such old 
towns as Suni, Taos and others. 

Situated as the Moqui villages and Acoma were, on 
the top of an inaccessible rock, the Spaniards despaired of 
conquering them. The supposed Cibola not panning out 
according to expectation, they did not seek reinforcement, 
and left the Pueblos in peace. Only near the end of the 
Sixteenth Century the Pueblos had to submit to Spanish 
rule, under which they remained until 1848, when the 
territory embracing New Mexico and Arizona was ceded 
to the United States. 

In some respects the Spanish supremacy proved bene- 
ficial to the Indians. They virtually maintained their 
independence. Many innovations in their life and cus- 
toms can be traced from this period. The only domestic 
creatures in their villages were large turkeys, whose 



178 3ir NATIVE LAND. 

feathers served as head ornaments for the warriors ; but 
horses, cows, sheep, goats, dogs and last, but not least, 
the indispensable burros were added to their domestic 
stock. 

The most important change in their communistic mode 
of living dates from the annexation of New Mexico to the 
United States, and the introduction of railroads. Their 
unfriendly neighbors, the Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas 
and Navajos, were restricted to their own reservations. 

Feeling safe under the powerful protection of the 
Government, these peaceable people have begun to "relin- 
quish their old mode of communistic existence in their 
strange dwellings. Until recently, there was a promiscuous 
living together of large families in the numerous apartments 
of a single house, to which access could be only obtained 
through a small aperture in the roof. More modern 
cottages are being built for single families now ; farming 
is also carried on on a large scale, and in some parts grape 
and fruit culture is attempted with good results. 

All the villages are characterized by a certain industrial 
monopoly. In one of them, for instance, the pottery for 
all the Pueblos is manufactured; in others, like the Moqui 
villages, all the people are employed in the making of 
finely woven goats' hair blankets, in which occupation many 
are great experts. Although a large number are engaged in 
the sale of blankets and Indian goods in the southwestern 
part of the Union, in the gold diggings of California, in 
Mormon settlements, in the small railroad stations of 
Arizona, the average Pueblo Indian prefers a settled life. 
He is domestic in his habits, and loves his family, his 
cattle, his farm and his neighbors as dearly as does his 
pale-faced brothers. And has he not good cause to 




^1 



ft 




OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 181 

rejoice and be contented with his lot? Has he not a faitli- 
fnl and charming wife? There are some pretty girls of 
perfect contour among the Pueblo Indians, especially in 
the Tio;ua villages. Are not his gleeful children, Avho are 
enjoying a romp on the huge sand hills, obedient and rev- 
erential in his presence ? The impudent spirit of young 
America has not yet exerted its baneful influence here. 

How scrupulously clean are the households ! The good 
housewives of the Netherlands do not excel the Pueblo 
squaws in cleanliness. Floors are always carefully swept; 
all along the walls of the spacious rooms seats and couches 
are covered with finely variegated rugs ; the walls are 
tastefully decorated with pictures and mirrors, and the 
large cupboards are filled with luxurious fruits, meats, 
pastry and jellies. Thousands of white bread-winners in 
the large cities would envy these Indians if they could 
behold their comparative affluence and their obviously 
contented state. Nor do they obtain all this without 
fatiguing toil. The land is barren and dry, which compels 
them to induce irrigation through long canals from far 
away streams, and the men are never afraid of work. 

The Pueblo pottery of to-day differs but little from 
that of the Sixteenth Century. In the pottery villages the 
work is done mostly by men, who sit on the broad, shaded 
platform and shape their immense vessels in imitation of 
human beings and every imaginable animal shape. The 
grotesquely shaped mouth is generally intended for the 
opening, through w^hicli the water, soup or milk is poured. 

The squaws are assuming more and more the occupa- 
tions of the modern housewife, though they still grind 
their corn in the stone troughs used hundreds of years 
ago, and they still bake their bread in thin layers on hot, 



182 MY ^^ATIVE LAND, 

slowinff stones. Dressmakers and tailors still oo a-beo- 
ging among the Pueblo people, and no attention whatever 
is paid to Parisian dictators of fashion. The good Pueblo 
squaw cuts, fits, and sews all the clothing for the famil}', 
which used to be composed mostly of leather. Her 
husband's wardrobe consists now of a few multi-colored 
shirts, a pair or two of leather pantaloons, with silver 
buttons, mocassins and a shoulder blanket. 

The head gear, if an}' be worn, as is often the case, is 
simply a large colored handkerchief. Girls are usually 
dressed like the daughters of Southern farmers, but they 
refuse to discard the bloomers, over which the petticoats 
are worn a little below the knees. These leather panta- 
lettes are a necessity in a country where poisonous snakes 
and insects abound in gardens and fields. To see a 
Pueblo girl at her best, she nmst be surprised in animated 
gossip in a bevy of girl friends, or when engaged in 
mirthful laughter while at Avork. Then the expressive, 
deep black eyes sparkle and the white teeth offer a glitter- 
ins: contrast to her fine black tresses, eves and evebrows. 
The Pueblo Indians are to be congratulated on one fact 
especially, that they permitted their moral improvement 
through the agency of the black-f rocked missionaries and 
school teachers who came from the East, but also that they 
are one of the few tribes who resisted the conscienceless 
rascals who would wreck their homes through "fire water" 
and gambliuc: devices. 

A large number of ancient many-storied, many cham- 
bered communal houses are scattered over New Mexico, 
three of the most important of which are Isletta, Laguna 
and Acoma. Isletta and Laguna are within a stone's 
throw of the railroad, ten miles and sixty-six miles, 



OLD TIMIJ aOMMUXISTS. 183 

respectively, beyond Albuquerque, and Acoma is reached 
from either Laguna or Bubero by a drive of a dozen miles. 
The aboriginal inhabitants of the puel>los, an intelligent, 
complex, industrious and independent race, are anomalous 
among North American natives. They are housed to-day 
in the self-same structures in whi(!h their forefathers were 
discovered, and in three and a half centuries of contact 
with Europeans their manner of life has not materially 
changed. 

The Indian tribes that roamed over mountain and plain 
have become wards of the Government, debased and 
denuded of whatever dignity they once possessed, ascribe 
what cause you will for their present condition. But the 
Pueblo Indian has absolutely maintained the integrity of 
his individuality, and is self-respecting and self-sufficient. 
lie accepted the form of religion professed by his Spanish 
conquerors, but without abandoning his own, and that is 
practically the only concession his persistent conservatism 
has eter made to external influence. 

Laborious efforts have been made to penetrate the 
reserve with which the involved inner life of this strange 
child of the desert is guarded, but it lies like a dark, vast 
continent behind a dimly visible shore, and he dwells 
within the shadowy rim of a night that yields no ray to 
tell of his origin. He is a true pagan, swathed in seem- 
ingly dense clouds of superstition, rich in fanciful legend, 
and profoundly ceremonious in religion. His gods are 
innumerable. Not even the ancient Greeks possessed a 
more populous Olympus. On that austere yet familiar 
height, gods of peace and of war, of the chase, of bounti- 
ful harvest and of famine, of sun and rain and snow, elbow 
a thousand others for standing room. The trail of the 



184 MY XATIVE LAJ^J). 

serpent has crossed his history, too, and he frets his 
pottery with an imitation of its scales, and gives the rattle- 
snake a prominent place among his deities. Unmistakably 
a pagan, yet the purity and well being of his communities 
will bear favorable comparison with those of the enlight- 
ened world. 

He is brave, honest and enterprising within the fixed 
limits of his little sphere; his wife is virtuous, his children 
are docile. And were the whole earth swept bare of every 
livinor thins:, save for a few leao;ues surrounding his tribal 
home, his life would show no manner of disturbance. 
Probably he might never hear of so unimportant an event. 
He would still alternately labor and relax in festive games, 
still reverence his gods and rear his children to a life of 
industry and content, so anomalous is he, so firmly estab- 
lished in an absolute independence. 

Pueblo architecture possesses none of the elaborate 
ornamentation found in the Aztec ruins in Mexico. The 
exterior of the house is absolutely plain. It is sometimes 
seven stories in height and contains over a thousand rooms. 
In some instances it is built of adobe — blocks of mud 
mixed with straw and dried in the sun, and in others, of 
stone covered with mud cement. The entrance is by 
means of a ladder, and when that is pulled up the latch- 
string: is considered withdrawn. 

The pueblo of pueblos is Acoma, a city without a peer. 
It is built upon the summit of a table-rock, with overhang- 
ing, eroded sides, 350 feet above the plain, which is 7,000 
feet above the sea. Anciently, according to the traditions 
of the Queres, it stood upon the crest of the superb 
Haunted Mesa, three miles away, and some 300 feet 
higher, but its only approach was one day destroyed by 



OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 185 

the falling of a cliff, and three unhappy women, who 
chanced to be the only occupants — the remainder of the 
population being at work in the fields below — died of 
starvation, in view of the homeless hundreds of their 
people who for many days surrounded the unscalable mesa 
with upturned, agonized faces. 

The present Acoma is the one discovered by the Span- 
iards ; the original pueblo on the Mesa Encantada being 
even then an ancient tradition. It is 1,000 feet in length 
and 40 feet high, and there is, besides, a church of enor- 
mous proportions. Until lately, it was reached only by a 
precipitous stairway in the rock, up which the inhabitants 
carried upon their backs every particle of the materials of 
which the village is constructed. The graveyard consumed 
forty years in building, by reason of the necessity of 
bringing earth from the plain below; and the church must 
have cost the labor of many generations, for its walls are 
CO feet high and 10 feet thick, and it has timbers 40 feet 
long and 14 inches square. 

The Acomas welcomed the soldiers of Coronado with 
deference, ascribing to them celestial origin. Subse- 
quently, upon learning the distinctly human character of 
the Spaniards, they professed allegiance, but afterwards 
wantonly slew a dozen of Zaldibar's men. By way of 
reprisal, Zaldibar headed three-score soldiers and under- 
took to carry the sky-citadel by assault. The incident has 
no parallel in American history, short of the memorable 
and similar exploit of Cortez on the great Aztec pyramid. 

After a three days' hand to hand struggle, the Spaniards 
stood victors upon that seemingly impregnable fortress, 
and received the submission of the Queres, who for three- 
quarters of a century thereafter remained tractable. In 



18G J/r XA TIVE LAXD. 

that interval, the priests came to Acoma and held footing 
for fifty years, until the bloody uprisal of 1G80 occurred, 
in which priest, soldier and settler were massacred or 
driven iwnw the land, and every vestige of their occupation 
was extirpated. After the resubjection of the natives by 
De Vargas, the present church was constructed, and the 
Puebl6s have not since rebelled against the contiguity of 
the white man. 

All the numerous Mexican communities in the Terri- 
tor}' contain representatives of the Penitentes order, Avhich 
is peculiar by reason of. the self-flagellations inflicted by its 
members in excess of pietistic zeal. Unlike their ilk of 
India, they do not practice self-torture for long periods, 
but only upon a certain da}'^ in each jear. Then, stripped 
to the waist, these poor zealots go chanting a dolorous 
strain, and beating themselves unsparingly upon the back 
with the sharp-spined cactus, or soap-weed, until they are 
a revolting sight to look upon. Often they sink from the 
exhaustion of long-sustained suffering and loss of blood. 
One of the ceremonies among these peculiar people is the 
bearing of a huge cross of heavy timber for long distances. 
Martvrs to conscience and religious devotees frequently 
carrv crosses of immense weight for miles, and are 
watched eagerly by crowds of excited spectators. The 
man who carries this fanatacism to the greatest length is 
the hero of the day, and receives the appointment of Chief 
of the Ceremonies for the following year. 

Ceremonies such as these point to tlic extreme antiquit}' 
of the people, and seem to indicate that they must have 
been descended from tribes Avhich were prominent in 
biblical narrative. According to many able historians, 
people have resided in this part of the world for at least 



OLD TIME COMMUNISTS. 187 

twelve hundred years. In other words, when Cohimbus 
and Americus Vespucius discovered and explored the new 
world or portions of it, these peculiar people had been 
living on the then mysterious continent for the greater 
part of a thousand years. 

According to some authorities these people are aborig- 
inal. According to others, they migrated from some dis- 
tant clime. The antiquity of China is well known, and 
there is good reason to believe that the Moquis and Zunis 
have sprung from Chinese voyagers, or perhaps pirates, 
who, hundreds of years ago, were wrecked on the western 
shores of America. Another theory is, that on the occas- 
ion of one of the numerous expulsions or emigrations from 
China, a band of Mongolians turned northward and came 
into America by crossing the Behring Strait. 

Other antiquarians think that Morocco, rather than 
China, was the original home of these races. The traveler 
is much struck with the resemblance between the habits and 
customs of the Moors and of some of the old established 
tribes of New Mexico. In dress and architecture the 
Moorish idea certainly prevails very prominently. The 
white toga and the picturesque red turban are prominent 
in these resemblances. The jugs used for carrying water 
are distinctly Moorish in type, and the women carry them 
on their heads in that peculiar manner which is so charac- 
teristic of Moorish habits and customs. 

One of the very earliest records of these people has 
been left us by Spanish explorers. A writer who accom- 
panied one of the earliest expeditions from Spain, says : 
""VYc found a great town called Acoma, containing about 
5,000 people, and situated upon a rock about fifty paces 
high, with no other entrance but by a pair of stairs hewn 



188 MY NATIVE LARD. 

in the rock, whereat our people marveled not a little. The 
chief men of this town came peaceably to visit us, bringing 
many mantles and chamois skins, excellently dressed, and 
great plenty of victuals. Their corn-fields were two leagues 
distant, and they fetched water out of a small river to 
water the same, on the brinks whereof there were great 
banks of roses like those of Castile. There were many 
mountains full of metals. Our men remained in the place 
three days, upon one of which the inhabitants made before 
them a very solemn dance, coming forth in the same 
gallant apparel, using very witty sports, wherewith our 
men were exceedingly delighted." 

Among the ruins found here, the early use of stone 
for architectural purposes is clearly manifested, and there 
are innumerable relics of ingenuity in periods upon which 
we are apt to look with great contempt. Arrow-heads 
made of flint, quartz, agate and jaspar, can easily be found 
by the relic hunter. Hatchets made of stone, and sharp- 
ened in a most unique manner, are also common, and the 
ancestors of the Pueblos undoubtedly used knives made 
of stone hundreds of years ago. 

One of the most interesting of the ancient houses is 
in the Chaco Caiion. This edifice was probably at one 
time 300 feet long, about half as wide and three stories 
high. From the nature of the rooms, it is evident that 
the walls were built in terrace-form out of sandstone. 
There were about 150 rooms, and judging from the present 
habits of the people, at least 500 human beings lived in 
this mammoth boarding-house. Another very interesting 
structure of a similar character is found on the Upper 
Grande River, about two hours' drive from Santa Fe. It 
was about 300 feet square originally, and most of the 



OLD TIME COMMUN'ISTS. 189 

foundations are still in fairly good condition, though much 
of the exposed portion of the stone has yielded by degrees 
to the friction caused by continual sandstorms. It is 
believed that more than 1,000 people lived in this one 
house. 

Of recent years a good deal has been written concern- 
ing the possibilities of the future in regard to saving 
expense by large numbers of families occupying one 
house. Most of these ideas have been ridiculed, because 
experience has proved that families seldom reside comfort- 
ably in crowded quarters. The tribes of which we are 
writing, while they destroy the originality of the commun- 
istic ideas of the Nineteenth Century, also disprove the 
arguments which are principally brought against them. 
In these singular houses or colonies, several families live 
together in perfect harmony. There are no instances on 
record of disputes such as are met with in boarding-houses 
patronized by white people, and in this one respect, at any 
rate, quite a lesson is taught us by the Pueblo tribes. 
The people are quiet and peaceable in disposition, and one 
secret of their peaceful dwelling together is found in the 
absence of jealousy, a characteristic or vice which does not 
seem to have penetrated into the houses on the cliffs, or 
to have sullied the disi^ositions of these people with such a 
remarkable and creditable history. It requires a good 
deal of dexterity and agility to enter or leave a com- 
munal house of this character, and a door, from what we 
are apt to term a civilized point of view, is unknown. 

The visitor is told a number of legends and stories 
about these houses and the people who live in them. The 
coming of Montezuma is the great idea which permeates 
all the legends and stories. According to many of the 



190 MY NATIVE LAND. 

people, Montezuma left Mexico, during the remote ages, 
in a canoe built of serpent-skins. His object was to civil- 
ize the East and to do away with human sacrifice. He 
communicated with the people by means of cords in which 
knots were tied in the most ingenious manner. The knots 
conveyed the meaning of the Prophet, and his peculiar 
messages were carried from pueblo to pueblo by swift 
messengers, Avho took great delight in executing their 
tasks. 

A number of exceedingly romantic legends are centered 
around the Pueblo de Taos, which is about twenty miles 
from Embudo. Taos is considered the most interesting 
and the most perfect specimen of a Pueblo Indian fortress. 
It consists of two communistic houses, each five stories 
high, and a Roman Catholic church (now in a ruined 
condition) Avhich stands near, although apart from the 
dwellings. Around the fortress are seven circular mounds, 
which at first suggest the idea of being the work of 
mound-l)uilders. On further examination they prove to 
be the sweating chambers or Turkish baths of this curious 
people. Of these chambers, the largest appears also to 
serve the purpose of a council chamber and mystic hall, 
where rites peculiar to the tribe (about which they are 
very reticent) are performed. 

The Pueblo Indians delight to adorn themselves in gay 
colors, and form very interesting and picturesque subjects 
for the artist, especially when associated with their quaint 
surroundings. They are skilled in the manufacture of 
pottery, basket-making and bead work. The grand annual 
festival of these Indians occurs on the 30th of Septem- 
ber, and the ceremonies are of a peculiarly interesting 
character. 



OLD TIME COMMUXISTS. 191 

Jesuitism has grafted its faitli upon the superstitions 
of the Montezumas, and a curious fruitage is the result. 
The mystic rites of the Pueblo Indians, performed at 
Pueblo de Taos in honor of San Geronimo (St. Jerome), 
upon each succeeding 30th day of September, attract large 
concourses of people, and are of great interest to either 
the ethnologist, ecclesiastic or tourist. A brief descrip- 
tion can give but a faint idea of these ceremonies, but may 
serve to arouse an interest in the matter. In the early 
morning of St. Jerome's day, a black-robed Indian makes 
a recitation from the top of the pueblo to the assembled 
multitude below. In the plaza stands a pine tree pole, 
fifty feet in height, and from a cross-piece at top dangles 
a live sheep, with legs tied together and back down. 
Besides the sheep, a garland of such fruits and vegetables 
as the valley produces, together with a basket of bread 
and grain, hang from the pole. The bell in the little 
adobe chapel sounds and a few of the Indians go in to 
mass. 

A curious service follows. A rubicund Mexican priest 
is the celebrant, while two old Mexicans in modern dress, 
and a Pueblo Indian in a red blanket, are acolytes. When 
the host is elevated, an Indian at the door beats a villainous 
drum and four musket shots are discharged. After the 
services are concluded, a procession is formed and marches 
to the race track, which is three hundred yards in length. 
The runners have prepared themselves in the estufas, or 
underground council chambers, and soon appear. There 
are fifty of them, and all are naked except a breech-clout, 
and are painted no two alike. Fifty other runners to con- 
test with these, arrive from the other pueblo. They form 
in line on either side of the course, and a slow, graceful 



192 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

dance ensues. All at once three hundred mad young Mex- 
icans rush through the throng on their wild ponies, the 
leader swino-ins: by the neck the gallo or cock. Then the 
races begin, two runners from each side darting down the 
track cheered b}^ their companions. No sooner do they 
reach the goal than two others start off, and thus for two 
hours, until the sum of victories gained by individuals 
entitles one party or the other to claim success. The race 
decided, the runners range themselves in two facing lines, 
and, preceded by the drum, begin a slow zig-zag march. 

Excitement now runs riot. The dancers chant weird 
sono"s, break the ranks and vie with each other in their 
antics and peculiarities. A rush is made upon the crowd 
of spectators through whom the participants in the orgies 
force their way, regardless of consequences. The women, 
who hitherto have taken but little part in the excitement, 
now come forward and throw cakes and rolls of bread 
from the pueblo terraces. Everybody rushes after these 
prizes in a headlong manner, and the confusion becomes 
still greater. 

An adjournment is then taken for dinner, and in the 
afternoon, six gorgeously painted and hideously decorated 
clowns come forward and go through a series of antics 
calculated to disgust rather than amuse the spectator. 
The unfortunate sheep, which is still hanging to the pole, is 
finally thrown to the ground after several attempts have 
been made to climb the pole. The fruits and products are 
seized by the clowns, who rush off with them, and every one 
connected with the tribe seem to be highly satisfied with 
the outcome of the day's proceedings, and the culmination 
of the spectacle. 



CHAPTER XI. 

HOW CUSTER LIVED AND DIED. 

''Remember Custer" -An Eye Witness of the Massacre-Custer, 
Cody and Alexis-A Ride over the Scenes of the Unequal 
Conflict-Major Reno's ^.larked Failure-How ^'Sitting Bull" Ran 
Away and Lived to Fight Another Day-Why a Medicine Man 
did not Summon Rain. 

"^||5eMEMBER Custer" was the watchword and 
IrV battle-cry of the small army of American sol- 
diers who early in the present decade advanced against 
hostile Indians in the Northwest, who after indulging for 
weeks in a series of fantastic dances and superstitious 
rites, were finally called to time by the Government and 
punished for their disregard of treaty rights and reason- 
able orders. Every American child should know who 
Custer was and why the troopers called upon each other to 
remember him on the occasion referred to. It is less than 
twenty years since he died. His name should be remem- 
bered by civilians as well as soldiers for almost as many 
centuries to come. 

There are some men who seem to defy and even court 
death. Custer was one of these. He was so recklessly 
brave that he often caused anxiety to his superior officers. 
Time and again he led a handful of men apparently into 
the jaws of death and brought them out safely, after hav- 
ing practically annihilated the foe. As the pitcher which 
is°carried safely to the well ninety-nine times sometimes 
aets broken at the hundredth attempt, so was it with Gen- 



(193) 



104 31 Y NATIVE LAJS^D. 

enil Custer. In June, 187(5, his detachment was outnum- 
bered twenty to one at a little ford near Crazy Horse 
Creek, in Dakota, and his entire command was wiped out. 
An adopted son of ''Sitting Bull," the famous Indian, states 
that he saw Custer die, adding that he twice witnessed the 
hero lying on his back fighting his foes. The third time 
he saw him a blanket was drawn over the hero, who was 
apparently dead. 

On another page is given an admirable illustration of 
the camp and ford, as well as of the monument erected in 
Custer's memory, with typical Indian camp scene. This 
picture is from photographs taken specially for Mr. 
Charles S. Fee, General Passenger Agent of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad, whose tracks run close by this scene of 
such sad history. 

A volume could be devoted to the life of Custer, the 
adventures he encountered, and the risks he ran in the course 
of his eventful and useful career. His works and his mem- 
oirs bristle with information concerning the actual truths of 
border life and Indian warfare, bereft of romance and ex- 
aii2:eration. Like almost all Indian fighters, Custer enter- 
tained a supreme contempt for the red man generally, 
although his naturally kind disposition led him to give 
credit to individual rod men for bravery, gratitude, and 
other characteristics generally believed to be inconsistent 
with their character and nationality. 

Besides being a gallant fighter, Custer was also a great 
lover of recreation and fun, while a genuine hunting ex- 
pedition drew him out from his almost habitual quiet and 
made him the natural leader of the party. Among his 
friends was "William Cody, better known to the amusement 
loviniT world as Buffalo Bill, on account of his alleged exces- 



now CUSTER LIVED AXD DIED. 195 

sive prowess in the shooting and destruction of buffalo. 
If Mr. Cody were consulted, he would probably prefer to be 
called Indian Bill, as his hatred of the average red man 
was very largely in excess of his anxiety to kill the hump- 
backed oxen, which were, at one time, almost in sole pos- 
session of the Western prairies. On one occasion, he and 
Custer had a very delightful time together, and Cody has 
given a pleasing description of what took place. 

This was on the occasion of the visit to this country of 
the Grand Duke Alexis. Some twenty-three years ago this 
European celebrity enjoyed a tour through the United 
States, and visited most of the grandest features of our 
native land. Before coming to the country, he had heard 
of its great hunting facilities, and also of the sport to be 
obtained from shooting buffalo on the i)rairie. He men- 
tioned this fact to the officers of the Government, who 
were detailed to complete arrangements for his benefit, 
and, acccordingly, it was arranged that the Grand Duke 
should be conducted into buffalo land, and initiated into 
the mysteries of buffalo hunting, by the officer who has 
since been annihilated by the Sioux, and the irrepressible 
hunter who has since developed into a prince among show- 
men . 

These two somewhat rough, but very kind, chaperones, 
took with them on this trip a part}^ of Indians, including 
"Spotted Tail," with whose daughter Custer carried on, we 
are told, a mild flirtation on the march. A great deal of 
amusement was derived from the trip, as well as very much 
important information. 

It was but four years later that Custer was engaged on 
a more serious and less entertaining mission. The scene 
of the tragedy was visited some three years ago by Mr. 



196 3ir XATIVE LAND. 

L. D. Wheeler, to whom we are indebted for the following 
very graphic and interesting description of the visit and of 
the thoughts it called forth : 

"A rather lengthy ride found us at Reno's crossing of 
the river, the ford where he crossed to make his attack. 
Fording the stream, we dismounted among the young 
timber and bushes lining the stream, and ate lunch. 
Before lunch was finished, two Indian girls came down the 
river. The younger, tall, slender and graceful, dressed in 
bright, clean scarlet, was a picture. With her jet black 
hair hanging in shining plaits, her piercing eyes and hand- 
some face, she was the most comely, sj'lph-like Indian 
maiden I have ever seen. 

"Mounting our horses, lunch over, we cantered back on 
the trail that Custer and Reno followed, for a ride of 
several miles to Lookout Hill, or Point, which we ascend- 
ed. This was the point where Custer and his oiScers 
obtained their first view of the valley of the Greasy Grass, 
as the Sioux call the Little Horn. 

"After a survey of the region, spurring our horses for- 
ward, we in time found ourselves climbing the gentle 
acclivities which led up to Reno's old rifle-pits, now almost 
obliterated. The most noticeable feature of the spot is 
the number of blanched bones of horses which lie scattered 
about. A short distance from the pits — which are rather 
rounded, and follow the outline of the hills in shape — and 
in a slight hollow below them, are more bones of horses. 
This is where the wounded were taken, and the hospital 
established, and the horses kept. From the wavy summit 
line of the bluffs, the ground slopes in an irregular broken 
way back to the northeast and east, into a coulee that 
forms the passage to the ford which Custer aimed for and 




Caster Battle Field aqd JVioqun\eqt. 



HOW C US TUB LIVED AjSTD DIED, 199 

never reached. The ground about the battle-field is now 
a national cemetery. It is enclosed by a wire fence, 
and there are several hundred acres of it. It might be 
cared for in a manner somewhat better than it is. During 
one of my visits there, a Crow Indian rode up to the gate 
and deliberately turned his herd of horses into the in- 
closure to graze. 

"As I rode into the grounds, after fording and recross- 
ing the river where Custer failed, the first object to greet my 
sight was a small inclosure, with large mound and head- 
stone, which marked the spot where Lieutenant Crittenden 
fell. At one corner, and outside of it, stood the regulation 
marble slab which marks the place where each body on the 
field vvas found. This one stated that there Lieutenant 
Calhoun was killed. At numbers of places down the 
western slope, but near the ravines, the surface is dotted 
with the little gravestones. In some places, far down the 
descent, and far from where Custer, Van Reilly, Tom 
Custer and others fell, they are seen singly ; in other spots 
three or four, or half a dozen. At one point there are 
over thirty, well massed together. Down in this part of 
the field, in the ravine running towards the monument, is 
the stone marking where Dr. Lord's body was found, and 
with it are four others. 

"In the shallow coulee east of the ridge, and almost at 
the bottom of the slope, some distance northwest of where 
Calhoun and Crittenden were killed, and on the main 
ridge slope of it, is a large group of stones. Here is where 
Captain Miles Keogh and thirty-eight men gave up their 
lives. On this side of the ridge — the eastern side — be- 
tween where Keogh and his men died and Avhere Custer 
fell, there are numerous stones. On the opposite side of 

13 



L>00 MY NATIVE LAND, 

the Custer ridge — that which faces the river — and close to 
its crest, there are very few stones, and those are much 
scattered, and not in groups. At the northern extremity 
of the ridge is a slight elevation which overtops everything 
else, and slopes awaj' in all directions, save where the 
ridge lies. Just below this knoll, or hillock — Custer 
Hill — facing southwest, is w^here Custer and the larger 
part of his men fell." 

On the riirht bank of the Missouri River — the Big; 
Muddy — in North Dakota, almost within ritle shot of the 
town of Mandan, on the Northern Pacific Railroad, there 
existed in the '70s a military post named after the nation's 
great martyr President, Fort Abraham Lincoln. On the 
morning of the 17th of eTuue, 18715, there went forth from 
here among others, with the pomp and ceremony for which 
they were distinguished, a cavalry regiment famed in the 
army for dash, bravery and endurance — the uoted Seventh 
Cavalry. 

At the head of the Seventh Cavalry was a man who 
was unquestionably the most picturesque character for 
long years, and perhaps for all previous and jiresent time, 
in the army. Entering the army in active service during 
the Civil War, his career was a continual round of suc- 
cesses and advances, and at its close, aside from the 
peerless Sheridan, no cavalryman had a greater reputation 
for nuiguificent dash than he. Transferred to the plains — 
the war over — his success as an Indian campaigner natur- 
ally followed, and at the time he moved out upon his 
latest and fated expedition, George Custer had a reputa- 
tion as an Indian fighter second to none. 

On June 22d, Custer and the Seventh Cavahy left 
camp on the Rosebud in compliance with their instruc- 



now CUSTER LIVED AND DIED. 201 

tions. On the 2od and 24th, many of the camping places 
of the Indians, in their migration westward, were passed. 
By evening of June 24th, the trail and signs had become 
so hot and fresh that a halt was ordered to await tiding-s 
from the scouts. Their information proved that the In- 
dians were across the divide, over in the valley of the 
Little Horn. Custer, confident of his ability to whip the 
Indians single-handed, prepared for fight at once. He 
pushed ahead on the trail, and created the impression that 
it was his determination to get to the spot, and have one 
battle royal with the Indians, in which he and the Seventh 
should be the sole participants on our side, and in conse- 
quence the sole heroes. The idea of defeat seems never 
to have occurred to him. 

Early on the morning of June 25th, Custer resumed 
his march. Up to that time the command was maneuv- 
ered as a whole. Now, however, it was divided into four 
detachments. One under Major Reno, consisting of three 
troops of cavalry and the Indian scouts, fort}^ in number, 
held the advance ; the second battalion, composed also of 
three troops, moved off some miles to the left of Reno, 
scouting the country to the southward ; a third detach- 
ment, comprising the pack train which carried the reserve 
ammunition — some 24,000 rounds — was under the com- 
mand of Captain McDougall, and had one troop as an escort ; 
the fourth battalion was that under Custer himself, and 
was the largest, having five troops, and it marched parallel 
to Reno and within easy supporting distance to the north, 
the pack train following the trail in rear of Reno and 
Custer. 

Reno advanced from the ford across the valley in col- 
umn of fours for some distance, then formed in line of 



202 MY NATIVE LAND. 

battle, and afterwards deployed the command as skir- 
mishers. The bulk of the Indians and their camp were hid- 
den by a bend of the river, and Reno, instead of charging 
round the bend and into the Indian camp, halted and dis- 
mounted his command to fight on foot. At this point two 
or three of the horses could not be controlled, and carried 
their riders into the Indian camp ; one account stating that 
they plunged over the river bank, injuring the men, who 
were afterwards killed by the Indians. Here at Ash Point, 
or Hollow, the command soon got sheltered in the timber, 
and Averc on the defensive; the Indians now pouring in 
from all sides. The Indian scouts with Reno had before 
now been dispersed, and were making back tracks fast as 
their ponies could carry them. Accounts differ as to how 
long they remained in this timber, but it was probably not 
to exceed half an hour. The "charge" out — as Reno 
termed it — was virtually a stampede, and many did not 
know of the departure until too late to start, no well-defined 
and well-understood order having been given to that effect. 
There was no systematic attempt to check the pursuit of 
the Indians, who now, directed by "Gall," swarmed down 
upon them and prevented them from reaching the ford at 
which they had crossed. Many were killed on this retreat, 
and many others wounded, among the former being 
Lieutenant Donald Mcintosh. Reno headed the retreat, 
and they tore pell mell across the valley, and at the new 
ford they were lucky to strike, there was great confusion, 
it being every man for himself, and the devil take the 
hindmost; and, as is usually the case, the (red) devil got 
his clutches on more than one. Crossing the stream as best 
they could. Lieutenant Hodgson being killed after having 
crossed, men and horses climbed the steep, almost inacces- 



now CUSTER LIVED AXD DIED. 203 

siblo bluffs and ravines, upon the top of which they had a 
chance to "take account of stock." Many had attenipted 
to scale the bluffs at other points hard by. The Indians 
were up there in some force, and by them, when almost 
up the cliffs, Dr. DeWolf was killed. 

After remaining on the bluffs at least an hour, prob- 
ably longer, a forward movement down stream was made 
for a mile or mile and a half. Previous to this, heavy 
firing had l)een heard down the river in the direction Cus- 
ter had gone. Two distinct volleys were heard by the 
entire command, followed by scattering shots, and it wq,s 
supposed Custer was carrying all before him. When Reno 
had reached the limit of this advance north toward Custer, 
they saw large numbers of Indian horsemen scurrying 
over what afterward proved to be Custer's battle-field. 
Soon these came tearing up toward Reno, who hastily 
retreated from what would seem to have been a stronjj 
position, back to near the point where he had originally 
reached the bluffs. Here they sheltered themselves on the 
small hills l)y the shallow breastworks, and placed the 
wounded and horses in a depression. That night, until 
between 9 and 10 o'clock, they were subjected to a heavy 
fire from the Indians, who entirely surrounded them. The 
firing again began at daylight of the 2Gth, and lasted all 
day, and as the Indians had command of some high points 
near by, there were many casualties. Reno's total loss, as 
given by Godfrey, was fifty killed, including three officers, 
and fifty-nine wounded. Many of those left in the river 
bottom when the retreat began, eventually reached the 
command again, escaping under cover of night. 

Of Custer's movements, opinions of what he did or should 
have done, are many and various. The theory first enter- 



204 Mr NATIVE LAXD. 

tained ami hold for years, but not now tenable nor, indeed, 
probably held by many, was that Custer reached the ford 
and attempted to cross ; was met by a lire so scorching 
that he drew back and retreated to the hill in the best 
form possible, and there fought like an animal at bay, 
hoping that Eeno's attack in the bottom and Benton's 
timely arrival would yet relieve him. The Indians, how- 
ever, strenuously assert that Custer never attempted the 
ford, and never got anywhere near it. No dead bodies^ 
wore found any nearer than within half a niilo of the ford, 
and it seems undoubted that the Indians tell the truth. 

"When Custer rode out on the bluff and looked over into 
the vallov of the Greasy Grass, he must have seen at once 
that ho h;ul before utterly misapprehended the situation. 
The natural thing to do wouUl have boon to retrace his trail, 
join Reno by the shortest route, and then, united, have 
pushed the attack in person or, if then too late for success- 
ful attack, he could, in all likelihood, have extricated the 
command and made junction with Terry. Indian signals 
travel rajiidly, and as soon as Reno was checked and beaten, 
not only was this fact signaled through the cam}), but every 
warrior tore away down stream to oppose Custer, joining 
those already there, and now, at least, alert. 

It is probable, then, that before Custer could reach the 
crook vallov the Indians had made sutHcient demonstra- 
tions to cause him to swerve from whore he wmihl othor- 
wiso. and naturally, strike it. anil work farther back toward 
the second line of bluffs, even perhaps as far back as Captain 
Godfrey irivcs the trail. The only thino; to militate ai^ainst 
this would be the element of time, which seems hardly to 
oppose it. However ho got there, Custer is at last upon the 
emineui-o which is so soon to be consecreted with his life's 



now CUSTER LIVED A^D DIED. 205 

blood. "What siiw ho? AVhatdidhe? The sources of infor- 
mation are necessarily largely Indian. At the southeastern 
end of the Custer ridge, facing, apparently, the draw, or 
coulee, of the branch of Custer Creek, Calhoun and Crit- 
tenden were placed. Some little distance back of them, 
in a depression, and down the northern slope of the Custer 
Ridge, Keogh stood. Stretched along the north slope of 
the ridge, from Keogh to Custer Hill, was Smith's com- 
mand, and at the culminating point of the ridge, or Custer 
Hill, but on the opposite ridge from where the others were 
placed, were Tom Custer and Yates, and with them Custer 
himself. Yates' and Custer's men evidently faced north- 
west. It would appear from the Indians' statements that 
most of the command were dismounted. 

The line was about three-(|uarters of a mile in length, 
and the attack was made by two strong bodies of Indians. 
One of these came up from the ford named after the hero 
and victim of the day. It was led hy a daring Indian, with 
some knowledge of generalship, and his followers were of 
a very superior class to the average red man. This body 
of attackers did great execution and succeeded in almost 
annihilating the white men against whom they were 
placed, and whom they outnumbered so conspicuously. 
From the meagre information concerning what took place 
that is accessible, it appears as though the execution of 
these men was almost equal to that of skilled sharp- 
shooters. A reckless Indian named "Crazy Horse" was at 
the head of a number of Cheyennes who formed the prin- 
cipal part of the second attacking body. These encount- 
ered Custer himself, and the men immediately under his 
orders. Outnumbering the white men to an overwhelming 
extent, they circled around, and being reinforced by the 



206 3IT J^ATIVE LAJSfD. 

first column, which by this time was elated by victory and 
reckless as to its brutality, it commenced the work of blot- 
ting out of existence the gallant cavalrymen before them. 

Most of Custer's men knew the nature of their destroy- 
ers too well to think of crying for quarter or making any 
effort to escape. There was a blank space between the 
ridge on which the battle was fought and the river below. 
Some few men ran down this spot in hopes of fording the 
river and finding temporary hiding places ; they prolonged 
their lives but for a few minutes only, for some of the 
fleetest Indians rushed after them and killed them as they 
ran. The horse upon which Captain Keogh rode into the 
battle escaped the general slaughter, and found its way 
back once more to civilization. Of the way it spent its 
declining years we have already spoken. 

With this exception, it is more than probable that no 
living creature which entered the fight with Custer came 
out of it alive. A Crow scout named "Curley," claims that 
he was in the fio;ht, and that after it was over he disguised 
himself as a Sioux, held his blanket around his head and 
escaped. "Curley's" statement was never received with 
much credence. The evidence generally points to the fact 
that, prior to the battle, nearly all the Indian scouts who were 
with Custer on the march ran away when ihey saw the 
overpowering nature of the foe. "Sitting Bull," who has 
since met the fate many believe he deserved, also claimed 
to be in the fight on the other side. His storv of the 
prowess of Custer, and of his death, was probably con- 
cocted with a view to currying favor with white men, as it 
appears evident that "Sitting Bull" showed his usual cow- 
ardice, and ran away before there was a battle within 
twenty-four hours' distance. 



HO W C USTER LIVED AXD DIED. 207 

Major James McLaughlin, during his experience as 
Indian Agent at Standing Kock Agency, North Dakota, 
had an opportunity of gathering a great deal of important 
information with reference to the battle-field and incidents 
connected with it. At the request of Mr. Wheeler, whose 
researches into the legends and history of interesting spots 
within easy access by means of the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road were most successful, obtained from the Major the 
following valuable information concerning many points of 
detail which have been the subject of debate and dispute: 
"It is difiicult," says this undoubted authority, "to 
arrive at even approximately the number of Indians who 
were encamped in the valley of the Little Big Horn when 
Custer's command reached there on June 25th, 187(3; the 
indifference of the Indians as to ascertaining their strength 
by actual count, and their ideas at that time being too 
crude to know themselves. I have been stationed at this 
Agency since the surrendered hostiles were brought here 
in the summer of 1881, and have conversed frequently 
with many of the Indians who were engaged in that fight, 
and more particularly with 'Gall,' 'Crow King,' 'Big Road, 
'Hump,' 'Sitting Bull,' 'Gray Eagle,' 'Spotted Horn Bull,' 
and other prominent men of the Sioux, regarding the Custer 
affair. When questioned as to the number of Indians 
engaged, the answer has invariably been, 'None of us knew; 
nina wicoti,' which means 'very many lodges.' From this 
source of information, which is the best obtainable, I 
place the number of male adults then in the camp at 3,000 ; 
and that on June 25th, 1876, the fighting strength of the 
Indians was between 2,500 and 3,000, and more probably 
approximating the latter number. 

" 'Sitting Bull' was a recognized medicine man, and of 



208 J/F XATIVE LAND. 

threat repute among the Sioux, not so much for his powers 
of healing and curing the sick — which, after he had re- 
gained such renown, was beneath his dignity — as for his 
prophecies; and no matter how absurd his prophecies 
might be, he found ready believers and willing followers, 
and when his prophecies failed to come to pass, he always 
succeeded in satisfying his over-credulous followers by 
o-ivinir some absurd reason. For instance, I was in his 
camp on Grande River in the spring of 1888, sometime 
about the end of June. There had been no rain for some 
weeks, and crops were suffering from drouth, and I 
remarked to him, who was in an assemblage of a large 
number of Indians of that district, that the crops needed 
rain badly, and that if much longer without rain the crops 
would amount to nothing. He, 'Sitting Bull,' replied: 
'Yes, the crops need rain, and my people have been im- 
portuning me to have it rain. I am considering the matter 
as to whether I will or not. I can make it rain any time 
I wish, but I fear hail. I cannot control hail, and should 
I make it rain, heavy hail might follow, which would ruin 
the prairie grass as well as the crops, and our horses and our 
cattle would thus be deprived of subsistence.' He made 
this statement with as much apparent candor as it was 
possible for a man to give expression to, and there was 
not an Indian among his hearers but appeared to accept it 
as within his power. 

" 'Sitting Bull' was dull in intellect, and not near as able 
a man as 'Gall,' 'Iluinp,' 'Crow,' and many others who were 
regarded as subordinate to him ; but he was an adept 
schemer and very cunning, and could work upon the cre- 
dulity of the Indians to a wonderful degree, and this, 
together with ijrcat obstinacv and tenacity, gained for him 



now CUSTER LIVED AXD DIED. 209 

his world-wide reputation. 'Sitting Bull' claimed iu his 
statement to me that he directed and led in the Custer 
fight ; but all the other Indians with whom I have talked 
contradict it, and said that 'Sitting Bull' fled with his family 
as soon as the village was attacked by Major Reno's com- 
mand, and that he was making his way to a place of 
safety, several miles out in the hills, when overtaken by 
some of his friends with news of victory over the soldiers, 
whereupon he returned, and in his usual style, took all the 
credit of victory to himself as having planned for the out- 
come, and as having been on a bluff overlooking the battle- 
field, appeasing the evil spirits and invoking the Great 
Spirit for the result of the fight. 

"And, when considering the ignorance and inherent 
superstition of the average Sioux Indian at that time, it is 
not to be wondered at that the majority, if not all, were 
willing to accept it, especially when united in common 
cause and what they considered as their only safety from 
annihilation. As a matter of fact, there was no one man 
who led or directed that fight ; it was a pell mell rush 
under a number of recognized warriors as leaders, with 
'Gair of the Hunkpapas and 'Crazy Horse' of the 
Cheyennes the more prominent. 

"The Indians with whom I have talked deny having 
mutilated any of the killed, but admit that many dead 
bodies were mutilated by women of the camp. They also 
claim that the fio-ht with Custer was of short duration. 
They have no knowledge as to hours and minutes, but have 
explained by the distance that could be walked while the 
fight lasted. They vary from twenty minutes to three- 
quarters of an hour, none placing it longer than forty-five 
minutes. This does not include the fiijht with Reno before 



210 MY NATIVE LAND. 

his retreat, but from the time that Custer's command 
advanced and the light with his command commenced. 
The opinion of tlie Indians regarding Reno's first attack 
and short stand is, that it was his retreat that gave them 
the victory over Custer's command. The heher skelter 
retreat of Reno's men enthused the Indians to such an 
extent that, flushed witli excitement and this early success, 
they were reckless in their charge upon Custer's command, 
and with the slight number of Indians thus fully enthused, 
that small command was but a slight check to their sweep- 
ing impetuosity. The Indians also state that the separated 
detachments made their victory over the troops more 
certain." 

Thus Custer fell. The mystery surrounding his death 
will probably never be solved in a satisfactory manner, 
owing to the impossibility of placing any reliance on state- 
ments made by the Indians. The way in which the 
command was annihilated and the soldiers' bodies muti- 
lated, should go a long way towards disproving many of 
the theories now in existence concerning the alleged ill 
treatment of Indians, and their natural peacefulness and 
good disposition. Custer had so frequently befriended 
the very men who surrounded his command and annihilated 
it, that the baseness of their ingratitude should be apparent 
even to those who are inclined to sympathize with the red 
men, and to denounce the alleged severity with which they 
have been treated. Travelers through the Dakota region 
find few spots of more melancholy, though marked, inter- 
est than the one illustrated in connection with this 
chapter. 



CHAPTER XII. 

AMONG THE CREOLES. 

Meaning of the Word ''Creole" — An Old Aristocratic Relic— The 
Venice of America — Origin of the Creole Carnivals — Rex and His 
Annual Disguises — Creole Balls — The St. Louis Veiled Prophets — 
The French Market and Other Landmarks in New Orleans — A 
Beautiful Ceremony and an Unfinished Monument. 

^ft^ EW ORLEANS is known throughout the world for 
" ^ the splendor of its carnivals. As one of the great 
Creole cities of the world, it has for more than half a 
century made merry once a year, and given quite a busi- 
ness aspect to carnival festivities. The Creole is one of 
the interesting characters to be met with in a tour through 
the United States. As a rule, he or she is joyous in the 
extreme, and believes most heartily in the wisdom of the 
command to "laugh and grow fat." The genuine Creole 
scarcely knows what it is to be sad for more than a few 
hours at a time, a very little pleasure more than offsetting 
a very great deal of trouble and suffering. A desire to 
move around and to enjoy changes of scene is a special 
feature of the Creole, and hence the spectacular effects of 
the carnival procession appeal most eloquently to him. 

Many Eastern and Northern people confound the terra 
"Creole" and "Mulatto," believing that the former name 
is given to the offspring of mixed marriages, which take 
place in spite of the vigilance of the laws of most of the 
Southern States. This is entirely a mistake, for the gen- 
uine Creole, instead of being an object of contempt and 

(•211) 



212 MY NATIVE LAND. 

pity, is rather an aristocrat and of a higher caste than the 
average white man. Strictly speaking, the term imphes 
birth in this country, but foreign parentage or ancestry. 
It was originally applied to the children of French and 
Spanish settlers in Louisiana, and in that application 
applied only to quite a handful of people. As time has 
worn on, and French emigration has ceased, and the 
Spaniard has been gradually pushed south, the number of 
actual Creoles has of course diminished rapidly. The 
name, however, by common consent, has been perpetuated 
and is retained by descendants in the third and fourth gen- 
erations of original Creoles. Some of the Creoles of 
to-day are very wealthy, and many of the others are com- 
paratively poor, changes in modes and conditions of life 
having affected them very much. Although the very 
name Creole suggests Spanish origin, there is more French 
blood among the Creoles of to-day than that of an}- other 
nation. The vivacious habits and general love of change 
so common among French people, continue in their 
descendants. The old plan of sending the children over to 
France to be educated has been largely abandoned in 
these later days, but the influences of Parisian life still 
have their effect on the race. 

This is largely the reason why it is that New Orleans 
has been often spoken of as the American Venice. To 
that beautiful European city, with its gondolas and pictur- 
esque costumes, belongs the honor of having originated 
high-class comedy. To New Orleans must be given the 
credit of planting, or at any rate perpetuating, the idea in 
a tangible shape in this country-, and of having, for fully 
two generations, kept up the annual celebration almost 
without a break. Masquerading came across the Atlantic 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 213 

from Venice by way of France, where the idea took 
strong hold. When emigration from France to the old 
Territory of Louisiana became general, the idea came with 
it, and the practice of sending children to Paris to l)e 
educated resulted in the latest ideas of aristocratic festivi- 
ties being brought over to the home which has since 
sheltered them. 

History tells us that on New Year's Eve of 1831, a 
number of pleasure-seeking men spent the entire night in 
a Creole restaurant at Mobile arranging for the first mystic 
order in that city, and from this beginning the long line 
of Creole comedies sprang up. In 1857, the Mystic 
Krewe of Comus made its first appearance upon the streets 
of New Orleans. "Paradise Lost" wjis the subject selected 
for illustration. Year after^year^e rev^ry was repeated 
on Shrove Tuesday, but the outbreak of the war naturally 
put a stop to the annual rejoicing. Southern enthusiasm 
is, however, hard to down, and directly the war was over, 
Comus reappeared in all his glory. A few years later the 
Knights of Momus were created, and in 1876 the Krewe of 
Proteus had its first carnival. Many other orders have 
followed, but these are the more magnificent and im- 
portant. 

It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the feeling 
which prevails in regard to these comedies. The mystery 
which surrounds the orders is extraordinary, and the secret 
has been well kept, a fact which cynics attribute to the exclu- 
sion of ladies from the secret circle. It is well known that 
on many occasions men have pretended to leave the city on 
the eve of the comedy, and to have returned to their 
homes a day or two later, not even their own families 
knowing that they took a leading part in the procession. 



2U MY XATIVE LAX J), 

The Carnival Kings issue royal edicts prior to their arrival, 
commanding all business to cease on the occasion of 
the rejoicings. The command is obeyed literally. Banks, 
courts of justice and business houses generally suspend 
operations, and old and young alike turn out to do homage 
to the monarch of the day. 

Let us imagine for a moment we are privileged to see a 
Creole carnival. Every inch of available space has been 
taken up. Every balcony overlooking the royal route is 
crowded with pleasure parties, including richly dressed 
ladies, all the flower and beauty of the Sunny South being 
represented. The course is illuminated in the most attrac- 
tive manner, and every one is waiting anxiouslv for the 
procession. Bands of music, playing sprightly tunes, finally 
reward the patience of the watchers. Then come heralds, 
bodyguards and marshals, all gorgeously arrayed for the 
occasion. Their horses, like themselves, are richly adorned 
for the occasion, and the banners and flags are conspicuous 
for the artistic blending of colors. 

Then riding in state comes the Lord High Chamberlain, 
bearing the golden key of the city, delivered over to him 
in state twenty-four hours previously by the Mayor. 
Next comes the hero of the parade, the King himself. All 
eyes are riveted upon him. Thoroughly disguised himself, 
he is able to recognize on the balconies and among the 
crowds his personal friends and most devoted admirers. 
To these he bows Avith great solemnity. Mystified to a 
degree, and often disputing among themselves as to the 
probable identity of the monarch, the richly dressed young 
ladies and their cavaliers bow in return, and look as though 
they would fain hold the monarch among them much 
longer than the necessity of keeping order makes it possi- 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 217 

ble. Following the King are the bodyguards and crowds 
of holiday makers. 

Rex generally makes a display now of some special 
theme, appearing this year as a crusader, another year as 
the discoverer of America, and a third year as some other 
mystic individual. But no matter what the subject of the 
carnival may be, the underlying principle is the same. 
Sometimes a great deal of instruction is imparted with the 
mirth-making, but in every case the procession is but a 
signal for general rejoicing. Directly the procession is 
disbanded, which always takes place in military order, the 
entire city gives way to fun and mirth of every character. 
Liberty abounds throughout the city without license. By 
common consent every one is careful to prevent disturbance 
or trouble. All are happy, and every one seems to appre- 
ciate the fact that the very life of the comedy depends 
upon its respectability. There is nothing vulgar or com- 
mon about any of the proceedings, or about the countless 
tableaux which pass along the private streets. Everything 
is what has been described as orderly disorder. Every- 
thing is attractive and easy. 

The ball, which is a prominent feature of a Creole 
carnival, is a wonderful combination of Nineteenth Century 
aristocratic ideas and of Oriental humor. The guests are 
in full dress, and represent the highest elements of South- 
ern society. Around the carpeted floor, those who have 
taken part in the pageant march in their grotesque cos- 
tumes. An apparently blood-thirsty Indian, brandishing a 
club over his head, darts for a second from the line to go 
through the motions of dashing out the brains of perhaps 
a most intimate friend, who has no idea who has thus hon- 
ored him by a recognition. 

13 



21.S MY XATIVIJ LAND. 

Another niun, who in cvcrvduy life is, perhaps, a 
sodulo bunker or a prominent pliysician, is masquerading 
in some extraordinary attire with a mask of extraordinary 
dimensions and sinnilicance. lie sees in the throng a 
young 1m(1\ of liis acciuaintance, and proceeds to shake 
hantls with hei- with great effusion. So well is the secret 
kept, tiial she has no idea that the apparently frolicsome 
youth is a middle-aged man of business, and she spends 
perhaps half the night wondering which of her beaus this 
fearfidl}' and wonderfully disguised man was. 

Of the balls whii-li succeed carnivals in the cities which 
delight in these temporary divorces from the cares of busi- 
ness and iinancc, ])ages might be written. One ball only 
need be mentioned in any detail. This is the ball given by 
the "Knights of llcvclry," in connection with and at the 
expense of the Mobile clubs. The entire tlu>atro was 
rcan'angcd in illustration of the theme of tiie club's 
])ageant for the year. All around the halls were hung 
tapestries and banners, artistically decorated, and arranged 
so as to convey the idea of forests and gardens. The very 
doors were convtM'tcd into mimic entrances to caves and 
l>artcrrcs, and the general cffiH-t was ent ramming as well as 
sentimental. The band was hidden from the guests in a 
most delightfully arranged little Swiss chalet, and refresh- 
ments were served from miniature garden pavilions. The 
very iloors upon which the dancing was to take }>lace were 
decorated so as to }n'cscnt the ai)i)carancc of a newly mown 
lawn. 

The height of realism was attained by means of an imi- 
tation nu)at over the orchestra well. Across this was a 
drawbridge, which was raised and dropped at tittiug inter- 
vals, and the drop curtain was nuide to represent a massive 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 2l!i 

castle door. There was u l)iiii(iuet clianihcr, willi f;uiltless 
reproductions of inediaivjd grundeur und wondc^i-. Stained 
glass windows represented well-known and attractive 
ladies, and there were otluT marvelous and costly innova- 
tions which seemed practically impossible within a theatre. 

At this ball, as at all others, the revelry proceeded 
until midnight. Just as Cinderella left the ball when the 
clock struck 12, so do the holders of the CrcoU; revels 
sto}) dancing imuHHliately that Lent has coimn<!nced. The 
next day all is over. Men who the night before w<!i'c the 
leaders in the masquc^rade, resume their commonplace 
cxist(M)ce, and are seen at the ordinary seats of custom, 
buying and selling and conducting themselves like Eastern 
rather than Southern men. 

The carmval id<^a has not ])ecn confined to strictly 
Southern cities. St. Louis has, for many years in succes- 
sion, enjoyed the })ageants and balls of ils Veiled Prophets, 
an organization as secret and mysterious as any to be 
found in a Creole section. Instead of being a Mardi Gras 
celebration, the St. I^ouis ])Mgcant. is given during the 
Indian summer days of the first week of October. The 
parade takes place after night-fall, and consists of very 
costly i)ageants and displays. It is no exaggeration to say 
that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in 
illuminating the streets through which the processions have 
passed, the money for this purpose being freely subscribed 
by ])usin<!ss men and private citizens. But in St. Louis, as 
in New Orleans, no one knows who finds the money to pay 
for the preparation of the pageant, the rich and varied cos- 
tumes, the exquisite invitations and souvenirs, and the 
gorgeous balls. Readers of tin; "Pickwick Papers" will 
remember that when certain members of the; club proposed 



220 31 Y XATIVU LAXD. 

to make a tour of the country, with a view to noting mat- 
ters of special interest, it was unanimously resolved not to 
limit the scope of the investigations, and to extend to the 
investigators the privilege of paying their own expenses. 
Very much the same rule prevails in regard to the Creole 
carnivals and balls, and the adaptation of the idea in other 
cities. The utmost secrecy is preserved, and it is consid- 
ered bad form in the extreme to even hint at belonjrino- to 
any of the secret orders. The members subscribe all 
expenses themselves without a moment's hesitation, and 
there has never been such a thing seen as a list of the 
amounts donated. 

There are not lacking people who say that these cele- 
brations are childish, and beneath the dignity of a business 
community. The answer to criticisms of this kind is, that 
no one being asked to contribute to the expense of the 
revelries, or being even asked or allowed to purchase a 
ticket of admission to the balls, any criticisms are very 
much like looking a gift horse in the mouth. If it be 
agreed that life is made up of something more than one 
stern, continuous race for wealth, then it must be conceded 
that these carnivals occupy a most important part in the 
routine of life. The absolute unselfishness of the entire 
work commends it to the approval of the most indifferent. 
Those who raise the expense have to work so hard during 
the parades and balls that they get comparatively little 
pleasure from them, while they are also prevented by the 
absolute secrecy which prevails from securing so much as 
a word of thanks or congratulation from the outside public. 
In this material age, there is a danger of celebrations 
of this kind wearing themselves out. "When they 
do so, the world will be the poorer in consequence. 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 221 

New Orleans, to which we have referred as the great 
home of the Creole carnival, is a city known the world 
over by reputation. It is situated at the very mouth of 
the great Mississippi River, and its history dates back to 
the year 1542, when a gallant band of adventurers floated 
down the river into the Gulf of Mexico. In 1682, La Salle 
sailed down the river and took possession of the country 
on both sides of it in the name of France. In the closing 
days of the Seventeenth Century a French expedition 
landed not far from New Orleans, which was founded in 
1718, with a population of sixty-eight souls. Three years 
later, the city, which now contains a population of more 
than a quarter of a million, was made the capital of the 
Territory of Louisiana, and it at once became a place of 
considerable importance. 

In 1704, it was ceded to Spain, and this resulted in the 
people taking possession of New Orleans and resisting the 
change in government. Five years later, the new Spanish 
Governor arrived with ample troops, suppressed the rebel- 
lion, and executed its leaders from the Place d' Amies. In 
1804, the territory of Orleans was established, and in 
1814, a British army, 15,000 strong, advanced on the 
city after which the Territory was named. A great 
deal of confusion followed, but the city held its own, and 
the invading army w^as repulsed. 

During the Civil War New Orleans again saw active 
campaigning. The occupancy of the city by General 
Butler, and the stern measures he adopted to suppress the 
loyalty even of the w^omen of the town, has formed the 
subject of much comment. There are many interesting 
stories concerning this epoch in the city's history, which 
are told with many variations to every one who sojourns 



'222 MY SATIVE LAXB. 

for a while iu the groat port at the gate of the greatest 
river in the work!. 

To-day, New Orleans is perhaps best known as the 
second largest cotton mart in the world, some 2,000,000 
bales of the product of the Southern plantations being re- 
ceived and shipped out every year. More than 30,000,000 
pounds of wool and 12,000,000 pounds of hides also pass 
through the city every 3'ear, to say nothing of immense 
(juantities of bananas and costly transactions in sugar 
and lumber. 

Although New Orleans is really some little distance 
from the ocean, the riNor at this point is more than 
half a mile wide, and the great ships of all nations 
are seen loading and unloading at its levee. 

New Orleans naturally abounds in ancient landmarks 
and memorials. The old Spanish Fort is one of the most 
interesting among these. Warfare of the most bitter 
character was seen again and again at this jilace. The 
fortifications were kept up largely to afford protection 
against raids from Mexican pirates and hostile Indians, 
though they were often useful against more civilized foes. 
It was at this port that Andrew Jackson i)repared to 
receive the British invaders. The magnificent use he made 
of the fortifications slundd have given to the old place a 
lasting standing and a ])ermanent preservation. Some 
forty vears ago, however, the fort was purchased and 
turned into a kind of country resort, and more lately it 
has become the home of a recreation club. 

Better preserved, and a most interesting connecting 
link between the jnist and the present, is the world- 
renowned French Market in New Orleans. A story is told 
of a irreat novelist, who traveled several thousand miles in 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 223 

order to find representatives of all nationalities grouped 
together in one narrow space. For a work he had in con- 
templation he was anxious to select for his characters men 
of all nationalities, whom chance or destiny had thrown 
together. He spent several days in Paris, journeyed 
throughout sunny Italy, got lost in some of the labyrinths 
of the unexplored sections of London, and finally crossed 
the Atlantic without having found the group of which he 
was in search. Not even in the large cities of America 
could he find his heart's desire, and it was not until he 
strayed into the old French Market of New Orleans that 
he found that for which he searched. He spent several 
days, and even weeks, wandering through the peculiar 
market, and making friends Avith the men of all nationali- 
ties who were working in different parts of it. He found 
the Creole, full of anecdote, superstition and pride, even 
when he was earning an occasional meal by helping to un- 
load bananas, or to carry away the refuse from the fish 
stores. The negro, in every phase of development, civil- 
ization and ignorance, could, and always can, be found 
within the confines of the market. The amount of folk-lore 
stored up in the brains covered by masses of unkempt wool 
astounded the novelist, who distributed dollars, in return 
for information received, so lavishly, that he began to be 
looked upon after a while as a capitalist whose wealth had 
driven him insane. Then, again, he met disappointed em- 
igrants from nearly all the European countries, men, and 
even women, who had crossed the Atlantic full of great 
expectations, but who had found a good many thorns 
among the looked-for roses. 

The Indian is not often seen now around the French 
Market, although he used to be (juite a feature of it. 



224 MY NATIVE LAN^D. 

Some of the most exce]3tionally idle loungers, however, 
show evidence of Indian blood in their veins, in the shape 
of exceptionally high cheek-bones, and abnormally straight 
and ungovernable hair. 

Almost every known language is spoken here. There 
is the purest French and the most atrocious patois. There 
is polished English, which seems to indicate high educa- 
tion, and there is the most picturesque dialect variation 
that could be desired by the most ardent devotee of the 
everlasting dialect story. Spanish is of course spoken by 
several of the market traders and workers, while Italian is 
quite common. At times in the day, when trade is very 
busy, the visitor may hear choice expletives in three or 
four languages at one time. He may not be able to inter- 
pret the peculiar noises and stern rebukes administered to 
idle help and truant boys, but he can generallj^ guess 
pretty accurately the scope and object of the little speeches 
which are scattered around so iYee\y. 

If it be asked what special function the market fulfills, 
the answer is that it is a kind of iuquire-witkin for every- 
thing. Many of the poorer people do all their trading 
here. Fruit is a great staple, and on another page a 
picture is given of one of the fruit stands of the old 
market. The picture is reproduced from a photograph 
taken on the spot by an artist of the National Company of 
St. Louis, publishers of "Our Own Country," and it 
shows well the peculiar construction of the market. The 
fruit sections are probably the most attractive and 
the least objectionable of the entire market, because here 
cleanliness is indispensable. In the vegetable section, 
which is also very large, there is not always quite so 
much care displayed or so much cleanliness enforced. 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 225 

refuse being sometimes allowed to accumulate liberally. 
Fish can be obtained in this market for an almost 
nominal consideration, being sometimes almost given away. 
Macaroni and other similar articles of diet form the staple 
feature of the Italian store of trade, which is carried on 
on the second floor of the market. The legitimate woi'k 
called for alone provides excuse for the presence of many 
thousand jDeople, who run hither and thither at certain 
hours of the day as though time were the essence of the 
contract, and no delay of any kind could be tolerated. As 
soon, however, as the pressing needs of the moment are 
satisfied, a period of luxurious idleness follows, and rest 
seems to be the chief desideratum of the average habitue 
or employe. The children, who are sitting around in 
large numbers, vie with their elders in matters of idleness, 
though they are occasionally aroused to a condition of 
pernicious activity by the hope of securing donations or 
compensation of some kind from newcomers and guests. 

Structurally, the French Market is very well preserved. 
There are evidences of antiquity and of the ravages of time 
and weather on every side, but for all that the market 
seems to have as its special mission the reminding of the 
people that when our ancestors built, they built for ages, 
and not entirely for the immediate present, as is too often 
the case nowadays. The market also serves as a link 
between the present and the past. It is only of late years 
that the bazaar, which used to be so prominent a feature, 
has fallen into insignificance. Formerly it retained the 
importance of the extreme Orient, and afforded infinite fund 
for reflection for the antiquarian and the lover of history. 

The cemeteries of New Orleans are of exceptional 
interest, and are visited every year by thousands of peo- 



226 MY NATIVE LAXD. 

pie. Owing to the proximimity of the water mark to the 
surface of the ground, the dead are not buried as in other 
cities, and the vaults are above instead of under ground. 
They are well arranged, and the antiquity of the burial 
grounds, and the historic memories connected with the 
tablets, combine to make them of more than ordinary 
interest. The local custom of suspending business on the 
first day of November of each year for the purpose of 
decorating graves in all the cemeteries, is also worthy of 
more than a passing notice. Not only do people decorate 
the last resting places of their friends and relatives on this 
specially selected day, but even the graves of strangers are 
cared for in a spirit of thankfulness that the angel of 
death has not entered the family circle, and made inroads 
into bonds of friendship. 

A few years ago a young woman died on the cars just 
as they were entering the world-renowned Creole city. 
There was nothing on the body to aid identification, and a 
stranger's grave had to be provided. In the meantime the 
friends and relatives of the missing girl had been making 
every effort to locate her, no idea having occurred to them 
that she was going South. A loving brother finally got 
hold of a clew, which he followed up so successfully that 
he at last solved the mystery. He arrived in New Orleans 
on November 1st, and when taken out to the grave that had 
been provided for the stranger who had died just outside 
the gates, he was astounded to find several handsome 
bouquets of flowers, with wreaths and crosses, lying upon 
it. Such a sight could hardly have been met with in any 
other city in the world, and too much can hardly be said 
in praise of the sentiment which suggests and encourages 
such disinterested kindness and thought. 



AMONG THE CREOLES. 227 

The cemetery which occupies a site close to the great 
battle-field, is always specially decorated, and crowds go 
out in thousands to pay tribute to honored memories. 
Close to this spot there is a monument to celebrate the 
great battle during which General Pakingham was shot, 
and at which General Jackson galloped excitedly up and 
down the lines, and almost forced the men on to victory. 
The monument has not received the care which it deserves. 
More than half a century ago work was commenced on it, 
and a great deal was accomplished. But after a year or 
two of effort the project was abandoned for the time, and 
it has never been renewed. In the long interval that has 
ensued the roof has, in a large measure, disappeared, as 
well as several of the steps leading up to the front. 
Hundreds of people have cut their names in the stone 
work, and the monument, which ought to be preserved in 
perpetuity, looks so disreputable that little regret would 
be caused were the entire fragment to be swept away by 
some unusually heavy gust of wind. 

More than 1,500 soldiers were buried in the Chal- 
mette Cemetery after the battle referred to. Since the war 
it has been well nigh forgotten, but several duels and 
affaires d'honneur have been settled on the historic spot. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

THE HEATHEN CHINEE IN HIS ELEMENT. 

A Trip to Chinatown, San Francisco— A House with a History — 
Narrow Alleys and Secret Doors — Opium Smoking and its Effects — 
The Highbinders — Celestial Theatricals — Chinese Festivals — The 
Brighter Side of a Great City — A Mammoth Hotel and Beautiful 
Park. 

/( HINATOWN, San Francisco, is such a remarkable 
^■^ place, and contrasts so strangely with the wealth 
and civilization of the great city on the Pacific Coast, of 
which it is a part, that its peculiarities cannot be ignored 
in a sketch of the most remarkable features of our native 
land. Writers and artists have for years made this blot 
on San Francisco's splendor the subject for sarcasm and 
cartoon, and, indeed, it is difficult to handle the subject 
without a considerable amount of severity. Californians 
are often blamed for their harshness towards the Chinese, 
and the way in which they have clamored from time to 
time for more stringent exclusion laws. It takes a trip to 
ChinatoM-n to make it clear to the average mortal why this 
feelinsf is so general in San Francisco, and whv it extends 
throughout the entire Pacific Slope. 

There are about 25,000 Chinese in and around 
San Francisco. A small proportion of these have aban- 
doned the worst features of their race, and make 
themselves comparatively useful as domestic servants. In 
order to retain their positions they have to assimilate them- 
selves more or less to the manners and customs of the 

(22S) 



THE HEATHEX CHINEE. 229 

country, and they are only objectionable in certain respects. 
But the one-time dwellers in the Celestial Empire, who 
make their homes in Chinatown, have very few redeeming 
qualities, and most of them seem to have no tangible 
excuse whatever for living. 

They adhere to all the vices and uncivilized habits of 
their forefathers, and very frequently add to them equally 
objectionable vices of so-called civilization. At one time 
all the streets in Chinatown were little more than elongated 
ash pits and garbage receptacles. The public outcry at 
length became so vigorous that the strong hand of the law 
was brought to bear, and now the principal through streets 
are kept fairly clean. The side streets and alleys are, 
however, still in a deplorable condition, and no American 
or European could possibly live many days in such filth 
without being stricken with a terrible disease. The 
Mongolians, however, seem to thrive under conditions 
which are fatal to civilized humanity. They live to quite 
the average age, and the children seem to be very healthy, 
if not conspicuously happy. 

Chinatown covers an area of about eight large squares, 
in the very heart of San Francisco. Again and again 
attempts have been made to get rid of the drawback and 
nuisance. But the " Melica Man" has allowed himself to 
be outwitted by the "Heathen Chinee," who has secured 
property rights which cannot be overcome without a meas- 
ure of confiscation, which would appear to be scarcely 
constitutional. The area is probably one of the most 
densely populated in the world. The Chinese seem to 
sleep everywhere and anywhere, and the houses are over- 
crowded to an extent which passes all belief. It is known 
as an actual fact, that in rooms twelve feet square as many 



230 MY NATIVE LAND. 

as twelve humau beings sleep and eat, and even cook what 
passes with them for food. The houses themselves are so 
horrible in their condition, and have been so remodeled 
from time to time, to meet Celestial ideas and fall in with 
notions which are but a relic of barbarism, that not even a 
colored man of the most degraded type can be persuaded 
to live permanently in a house which has ever been occu- 
pied by an unregenerated denizen of Chinatown. 

At the entrance to this peculiar, and, indeed, disrepu- 
table quarter, there is a house with a peculiar history. It 
was built more than a quarter of a century ago, by a 
wealthy banker, who selected the site because of the ad- 
mirable view that could be obtained from it of the leading 
features of the city. He spared no expense in its erection, 
and when it was completed he was able to gaze from the 
upper windows upon some of the most beautiful scenery 
in the world. For a while the banker lived in the most 
magnificent style, and earned for himself a reputation as 
a prince of entertainers. He spent thousands of dollars on 
entertainments, and appeared to have everything that a 
human being could desire. His end was a tragic one, and 
it has never been ascertained for certain whether he died 
by his own hand, or by the hand of one of his alleged 
friends or avowed foes. The house which was once his 
great pride is now occupied by the Chinese Consul. 

It is still, by far, the finest house in the Chinese 
quarter. The moment it is passed the sight-seeker or 
slummer finds himself in the midst of a horrible collection 
of Oriental filth and squalor. There are a number of 
stores which excite his contempt the moment his eyes light 
upon them. They are chiefly devoted to the retailing of 
such food as the occupants of Chinatown delight in, and 



THE IIExVrilEN CHINEE, 231 

over many of them the Chinese national emblem can be 
seen flying. Fish arc on sale in large numbers, and as 
they are kept until sold, regardless of their condition, the 
effluvia of some of the fish markets can be very easily 
imagined. Vegetables also form a very large proportion 
of the daily bills of fare, and these add materially to the 
malodorous condition of the neighborhood. The streets 
are all of them very narrow, and there are also a number 
of exceptionally narrow and complicated passages and 
alleys, which have been the scenes of crimes innumerable 
in days gone by. 

Some of these alleys are but three or four feet wide, 
and, owing to their almost countless turns and angles, they 
afford an easy means for the escape of a fugitive who is 
being hunted by the police, or by one of those blood-thirsty 
Chinese societies of which the Highbinders is a type. One 
writer who has investigated the matter very thoroughly, 
tells us that most of the houses have secret doors leading 
from one to the other in such a manner that if a fugitive 
should determine to make his escape, he can always do so 
by means of these secret doors, and the underground pas- 
sages to which they lead. 

The stores, workshops and other apartments are gen- 
erally exceedingly small, and the proverbial economy of 
the Chinaman is proved by the fact that every square foot 
of floor space and ground is put to some practical use, and 
one finds cobblers, barbers, fortune-tellers and a multitude 
of small tradesmen carrying on a business in a jog, or 
niche in the wall, not as large as an ordinary boot- 
black's stand. Along the narrow sidewalks are seen many 
of these curbstone merchants. Some have their goods 
displayed in glass show-cases, ranged along the wall, where 



232 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

are exhibited queer-looking fancy articles of Chinese work- 
manship, of a cheap grade, all sorts of inexpensive orna- 
ments for women and children's wear, curiously fashioned 
from ivory, bone, beads, glass and brass, water and opium 
pipes galore. 

The opium pipe is something so unlike any European 
conception of a pipe that it is difficult to describe it. It 
consists of a large bamboo tube or cylinder, with a bowl 
about midway between the extremities. The bowl is some- 
times a very small brass plate, and sometimes an earthen 
cup-shaped contrivance, with the top closed or decked 
over, having only a tiny hole in the center. Into this 
little aperture the opium, in a semi-liquid state, after being 
well melted in a lamp flame, is thrust by means of a fine 
wire or needle. The drug is inserted in infinitesimal quan- 
tities. It is said that all the Chinese smoke opium, 
although all do not indulge to excess. Some seem to be 
able to use the drug without its gaining the mastery over 
them. 

There are more than a hundred opium dens in the Chi- 
nese quarters. These places are used for no other purpose 
whatever at any time. If it were the Chinese alone who 
frequented them, but little would be thought of it. Hun- 
dreds of white people, men, women and the j^outh of both 
sexes, have, however, become victims to this loathsome 
habit. So completely enslaved are they, that there is no 
escape from the tyrant. For all the poverty and untold 
misery this has brought upon these unfortunates, the 
Chinese are responsible. Vices cluster around Chinese 
social life, and nearly every house has its opium-smoking 
apartment, or rooms where the lottery or some kind of 
gambling is carried on. 




Tl,e I'l-. 



THE IIEATIIEX CHINEE. 2^,5 

The residents of Chinatown have a m)vcrnnicnt of their 
own, with its so(nal aiul economic regulations, and its 
police and j)cnal department, and they even intlict the 
death penalty, but in such a secret way that the outside 
world seldom hears of these acts of high authority. This 
social and commercial policy is controlled by six companies, 
to one of which every Chinaman In the country owes 
allegiance and is tributary. These companies severally 
represent different provinces \\\ the Chinese Empire, and 
upon every arrival of a steamer from that country, and 
before the passengers are landed, the Chinese portion of 
them are visited by an official of the six companies, who 
ascertains what province each arriving coolie is from. That 
decides as to which company he will belong. 

Every Chinaman who comes is assured of his return to 
China, or, if he is so unfortunate as to die while in exile, 
that his bones will be sent home. This very important 
matter is one of the duties of the six companies. This 
comforting assurance, however, is not shared in by the 
women, whom, excepting those who are the wives of men 
of the better class, are brought over by a vile class of 
traders, and sold as chattels, or slaves, having no relation 
to the six companies. 

There is in the Chinese quarters a ghastly underground 
place, where the bones of the departed are conveyed, after 
they have remained a certaiji time in the ground. Here 
they are scraped, cleaned and packed, preparatory to their 
last journey back to the fatherland, and their final resting 
place. Among the Chinese residents of San Francisco 
there are comparatively few of those of the higher class. 
The difference between them and the masses is very pro- 
nounced, and they appreciate the difference to the fullest 

14 



23() MT NATIVE LAND. 

extent. They are educutcd, wcll-))red gentlemen. The 
coolie and lower class are an ignorant, repulsive and 
ill-mannered i)eoi)le. They seem to be mere brutes, and 
not a o;leani of intelligence is apparent in their dull, 
expressionless faces. 

The "Highbinders" are bound together by solemn 
obligations, and are the instruments used by other China- 
men to avenge their real or fancied wrongs. The High- 
binders are organized into lodges or tongs, which are 
engaged in constant feuds with each other. They wage 
open warfare, and so deadly is their mutual hatred, that 
the Avar ceases only when the last individual who has come 
under the ban of a rival tong has been sacrificed. These 
feuds resemble the vendettas in some of the Southern 
States of Europe, and they defy all efforts of the police to 
suppress them. Murders are, consequently, frequent, but 
it is next to impossible to identify the murderers, and if a 
Chinaman is arrested on suspicion, or even almost positive 
evidence of guilt, the trial uniformly ends in a failure to 
convict. 

The theatres are, to the visitor, })robahly the most 
interesting feature of the Chinese quarters. A few years 
ao-o there were several of these playhouses, but the number 
is now reduced to two. The charge of admission is 25 
cents or 50 cents. 

The white people who, out of curiosity, attend a per- 
formance, generally pay more, and are given more com- 
fortable seats upon the stage. The stage is a primitive 
affair. Tt boasts of no curtain, footlights or scenery of 
any kind. 

When, during the progress of a play, a man is killed, 
he lies upon the stage until th« scene is ended, and then 



THE HEATHEN CIIIXEE. 237 

g€ts up and walks off. Sometimes an attendant will bring 
in and place under his head a small wooden pillow, so that 
the dead man may rest more comfortably. After an 
actor has been beheaded, he has been known to pickup 
the false head and apostrophize it Avhile making his exit 
from the stage. The orchestra is at the back of the stage. 
It usually consists of one or two ear-splitting flageolets and 
a system of gongs and tom-toms, which keep up an infer- 
nal din during the entire performance. 

Chinese plays are usually historical, and vary in length 
from a few hours to several months. The costumes are 
gorgeous after the Chinese ideas of splendor. No females 
are allowed on the stage at all, young men with falsetto 
voices invariably impersonating the women. 

The restaurants of Chinatown are a very unsatisfactory 
feature of the unsavory quarter. Many of the laborers 
board at them, and the smaller ones are nothini; in the 
world but miserable little chop-houses, badly ventilated 
and exceedingly objectionable, and, indeed, injurious to 
health and good morals. There are larger restaurants, 
which are more expensively equipped. Shakespeare's 
advice as to neatness without gaudiness is not followed. 
There is always a profusion of color in decoration, but 
there is never anything like symmetry or beauty. 

There arc an immense number of joss-houses in China- 
town. Each company has one of its own. Others belong 
to the societies, tongs and to private parties. The 
appointments of these temples are gorgeous in their Avay. 
One has recently been opened on Waverly Place, which far 
surpasses all the others in the grandeur of its sacred equip- 
ments and decoration. The idols, bronzes, carvings, bells, 
banners and the paraphernalia of the temple are said to 



238 :]IT XATIVB LAXD. 

have cost about $20,000, and represents the highest degree 
of Chinese art. In front of the throne in each of these 
temples, where the principal god is seated, burns a sacred 
flame that is never extinguished. In a cabinet at the right 
of the entrance is a small image called "the doorkeeper," 
who sees that no harm befalls the temple of those who 
enter. 

The temple doors are always open, and those who are 
religiously inclined can come in at any hour of the day. 
Prayers are written or printed on red or blue paper. 
These are lighted and deposited in a sort of furnace with 
an opening near the top, and as the smoke ascends the 
bell near by is sounded to attract the attention of the 
ffods. The women have a favorite method of telling their 
fortunes. They knool before the altar, holding in either 
hand a small wooden block, about live inches long, which 
resembles a split banana. These they raise to their closed 
eves, bow^ the head and drop. If they fall in a certain 
position, it is an indication that the wish or prayer will be 
granted. If they fall in an unfavorable position, they con- 
tinue the effort until the blocks fall as desired. When 
business is dull and times hard Avith the Chinaman, they 
attribute it to the displeasure of their gods. They try to 
propitiate the offended deity by burning incense sticks, 
and offering fruits and other things which have no Chris- 
tian equivalent, anil which are supposed to be grateful to 
the divine palate. 

The Chinese observe a great many holidays. The most 
important are those of the New Year. This is a movable 
feast, and occurs between the 21st of January and the liHh 
of February. The New Year must fall on the first new moon 
after the sun has entered Aquarius. It is customary at 



THE HEATIIEX ClIIXEE. 2;il» 

this time to have all business straightened out, and all debts 
contracted during the 3^ear paid. Unless this is done, they 
will have no credit during the year, and consequently a 
great effort is made to pay their creditors. There are 
some, however, who have been unfortunate and have laid 
by nothing for this day of settlement, and knowing well 
that there are a number of those troublesome little bills 
that are liable to be presented at any time, they keep them- 
selves out of sight until the sun has risen upon the New 
Year. 

They then reappear in their accustomed haunts, feeling 
safe for a few days at least, for while the merry-making 
is ffoing on there is no danger of being confronted with a 
dun. All gloomy subjects are tabooed, and everj^body 
devotes himself to getting all the enjoyment he possibly 
can out of this festal day. To some this is the only holiday 
in the whole year, and they are obliged to return to their 
labors the following day. Others will celebrate three or 
four days, and so on up the scale. The rich and the 
independent keep it up for fully two weeks, and begin to 
settle down to everyday life about the sixteenth day. 

The night preceding New Year's day is spent in religious 
ceremonies at the temples or at home. Out of doors the 
air is filled with the smoke and roar of exploding fire- 
crackers. But when the clock has tolled the death of the 
old and announced the birth of the New Year, one would 
think that Pandemonium was let loose. Unless one has 
heard it, no idea can be formed as to what this unearthly 
noise really is. We are told it is to frighten away evil 
spirits, to invoke the favor of the gods, to bid, as they 
fondl}' hope, a final farewell to ill-luck ; and, again, simph' 
because they are happy, and when in this frame of mind, 



240 JIY XATIVU LAXD. 

they love to manifest their joy in noisy demonstrations, 
A certain time in the early morning is spent in worship at 
the shrines at home and in the temples. They place before 
their sacred images, offerings of tea, wine, rice, fruits and 
flowers. The Chinese lily is in full bloom at this season, 
and it occupies a conspicuous place in the joss-houses. It 
is for sale on every street corner. 

The day is spent in feasting, pleasure seeking, and in 
making New Year's calls. The Chinamen are always 
greatly pleased to receive calls from white men with whom 
thev have business dealinsjs, and thev exhibit their cards 
with much pride. They are very punctilious and even 
rival the Frenchmen in politeness, and it is considered aa 
offense if any of their proffered hospitalities are declined. 

But while Chinatown is the most extraordinary feature 
of San Francisco, and is visited by tourists who naturally 
look upon it somewhat in the light of forbidden and hence 
exceptionally attractive fruit, it is not by any means the 
most interesting or most important feature of one of the 
finest cities in the world. San Francisco is the metropolis 
of the Pacific Slope. It occupies the point of a long 
peninsula between the bay and the ocean, and so unique is 
its site that it includes some magnificent hills and peaks. 
The history of San Francisco bristles with border and gold 
mine stories and talcs of the early troubles of pioneers. 
Whole pages could be written concerning the adventures of 
the early days of this remarkable city. The time was 
when a few frame buildings constituted the entire town. 
The rush of speculators following discovery after discovery 
of gold, converted the quiet little port into a scene of 
turmoil and disturbance. 

Every ship brought with it a cargo of more or less 



THE IIEATIIEX ClIIXEE. 241 

desperate men, who had come from various points of the 
compass determined to obtain a lion's share of the gold 
which they had been told could be had for the taking. 
The value of commodities went up like sky-rockets. The 
man who had a few spare mules and wagons on hand was 
able to realize ten times the price that was tendered for 
them before the boom. Many men who were thus situated 
did not consider it advisable to throw away their chances 
by accepting grave risks in search of gold, and many who 
stayed at home and supplied the wants of those who went 
up country realized handsome competences, and in some 
cases small fortunes. 

That there was a good deal of lawlessness and violence 
is not to be wondered at. It has been said that for every 
bona fide miner there was at least one hanger-on or camp 
follower, who had no intention of doings any diirsrin"; or 
washino; l)ut who was smart enouo;li to realize that a verit- 
able thief's paradise would be built up by the hard 
workers. Sometimes these men went to the trouble of 
digging tunnels under the ground .and into the tents of 
successful miners, frequently passing through rich deposits 
of gold on the way. At other times they waylaid wagons 
and coaches coming into San Francisco from the mining; 
camps. History tells us of the fights which ensued, and 
we have all heard of the successful miners who were 
murdered while asleep at half-way houses, and the result 
of their hard toil turned to base uses and vicious purposes. 

In San Francisco itself robbery and violence could not 
be suppressed. We have all heard of the way in which 
the decent element finally got together, formed special 
laws and executed offenders in short order. No one of 
course approves lynch law in the abstract, but when the 



242 3IY ^^ATIVI: LAXD. 

circumstances of the case are taken into consideration, it 
is difficult to condemn very severely the men who made it 
possible for San Francisco to become a great and honored 
eity. 

The population of San Francisco to-day is about a third 
of a million. A greater portion of its growth has been during 
the last quarter of a century, and it was the first city in 
this country to lay cable conduits and adopt a system of 
cable cars. For several years it had practically a monopoly 
in this mode of street transportation, and, although elec- 
tricity has since provided an even more convenient motive 
power, San Francisco will always be entitled to credit for 
the admirable missionary work it did in this direction. At 
the present time, almost every portion of the city and its 
beautiful parks can be reached easily by a system of 
transportation as comfortable and rapid as it is inexpensive. 

Amonjr the wonders of San Francisco must be men- 
tioned the Palace Hotel, a structure of immense magnitude 
and probabl}^ two or three times as large as the average 
Eastern man imagines. The site of the hotel covers a space 
of more than an acre and a half, and several million dollars 
were spent on this structure. Everything is magnificent, 
expansive, huge and massive. The building itself is seven 
stories high, and in its center, forming what may be de- 
scribed as the grandest enclosed court in the world, is a 
circular space 144 feet across and roofed iu Avith glass at a 
jrreat height. Carriag^es are driven into this enclosure, 

ODD 

and, in the nearest approach to severe weather known in 
San Francisco, guests can alight practically indoors. 

There are nearly 800 bed-rooms, all of them large and 
lofty, and the general style of architecture is more than 
massive. The foundation walls are 12 feet thick, and 



THE HEATIIEX ClIIXEE. 243 

31,000,000 brick were used above them. The skeleton of 
wrought iron bands, upon which the brick and stone work 
is constructed, weighs more than 3,000 tons. Four artesian 
wells supply pure water to the house, which is not only 
one of the largest hotels in the world, but also one of the 
most complete and independent in its arrangements. 

A pleasant ride of nearly four miles in length brings 
the rider to Golden Gate Park. The Golden Gate, from 
which the park takes its name, is one of the world's 
beauty spots, and here some of the most exquisite sunsets 
ever witnessed can be seen. The Gate is the entrance from 
the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay, which varies in 
width from ten to fifteen miles. At the Gate the width is 
suddenly reduced to less than a mile, and hence at ebb and 
flow the current is very swift. Near the Gate sea lions can 
be seen srambolino- in the surf, and the waves can be 
observed striking on the rocks and boulders, and sending 
up spray of foamy whiteness to a height of a hundred feet. 

Golden Gate Park is like everything else on the Pacific 
Coast, immense and wonderful. It is not the largest park 
in the world, but it ranks amongst the most extensive. Its 
acreage exceeds a thousand, and it is difiicult to appreciate 
the fact that the richly cultivated ground through which 
the tourist is driven has been reclaimed from the ocean, 
and was but once little more than a succession of sand bars 
and dunes. 

When the reader goes to San Francisco, as we hope he 
will go some day, if he has not already visited it, he will 
be told within a few minutes of his entering the city, that 
he has at least reached what may be fairly termed God's 
country. Of the glorious climate of California he will 
hear nmch at every step, and before he has been in the city 



244 3fY XATIVE LAXD. 

many days, he will wonder how he is to get out of it alive 
if he is to see but a fraction of the wonderful sights to 
which his attention is called. 

California is frequently spoken of as the Golden State. 
The name California was given to the territory com- 
prising the State and Lower California as long ago as 
1510, when a Spanish novelist, either in fancy or prophecy, 
wrote concerning "the great land of California, where an 
abundance of gold and precious stones are found." In 
1848, California proper was ceded to the United States, 
and in the same year the discovery of gold at Colomo put 
a stop to the peace and quiet which had prevailed on the 
fertile plains, the unexplored mountains and the attractive 
valleys. Shortly after, a hundred thousand men rushed 
into the State, and for the first few years as many as a 
hundred thousand miners were kept steadily at work. 

It was in 185G that the famous Vigilance Committee was 
formed. In the month of May of that year murderers 
were taken from jail and executed, the result being that 
the Governor declared San Francisco to be in a state of 
insurrection. The Vigilance Committee gained almost 
sovereign power, and before it disbanded in August, it had 
a parade in which over 5,000 armed, disciplined men took 
part. 

Two years later, the overland mail commenced its 
journeys and the celebrated pony express follow'ed in 18G0. 
Railroads followed soon after, and instead of being a prac- 
tically unknown country, several weeks' journey from the 
old established cities, the lightning express has brought 
the Pacific so near to the Atlantic that time and space 
seem to have been almost annihilated. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BEFORE EMANCIPATION AND AFTER. 

First Importation of Negro Slaves into America— The Original Aboli- 
tionists—A Colored Enthusiast and a Coward— Origin of the word 
"Secession" — John Brown's Fanaticism — Uncle Tom's Cabin- 
Faithful unto Death— George Augustus Sala on the Negro who 
Lingered too long in the Mill Pond. 

'7T" PIE American negro is such a distinct character that 
^»^ he cannot be overlooked in a work of this nature. 
Some people think he is wholly bad, and that although he 
occasionally assumes a virtue, he is but playing a part, and 
playing it but indifferently well at that. Others place him 
on a lofty pedestal, and magnify him into a hero and a 

martyr. 

But the Afro- American, commonly called a " nigger" 
in the South, is neither the one nor the other. He is often 
as worthless as the "white trash" he so scornfully de- 
spises, and he is often all that the most exacting could 
expect, when his surroundings and disadvantages are taken 
into consideration. Physiologists tell us that man is very 
largely what others make him, many going so far as to say 
that character and disposition are three parts hereditary 
and one part environment. If this is so, a good deal of 
allowance should be made. It is less than 300 years since 
the first negroes were brought over to this country, and it 
is but little more than thirty years since slavery was 
abolished. Hence, from both the standpoints of descent 
and environment, the negro is at a great disadvantage, and 
he should hardly be judged by the common standard. 

(245) 



246 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

It was in the year 16 19 that a Dutch ship landed a 
cargo of negroes from Guinea, but that was not really the 
first case of slavery in this country. Prior to that time 
paupers and criminals from the old world had voluntarily 
sold themselves into a species of subjection, in preference 
to starvation and detention in their own land; but this 
landing in 1619 seems to have really introduced the colored 
man into the labor world and market of America. 

We need not trace the history of the negro as a slave 
at any length. That he was occasionally abused goes with- 
out saying, but that his condition was approximately as 
bad as a majority of writers have attempted to prove is 
not so certain. It was the policy of the slave owner to get 
as much work out of his staff as he possibly could. He 
knew from experience that the powers of human endurance 
were necessarily limited, and that a man could not work 
satisfactorily when he was sick or hungry. Hence, even on 
the supposition that all slave owners were without feeling, 
it is obvious that self-interest must have impelled them to 
keep the negro in good health, and to prevent him from 
losing strength from hardship and want. 

On some plantations the lot of the slave was a hard 
one, but on others there was very little complaining or 
cause for complaint. Thousands of slaves were better off 
by far than they have been subsequent to liberation, and it 
is a fact that speaks volumes for the much discussed and 
criticized slaveholders, that numbers of emancipated 
slaves refused to accept their freedom, while many more, 
who went away delighted at the removal of withstraint, 
came back of their own option very soon after, and begged 
to be allowed to resume the old relations. 

The average negro obeys, literally obeys, the divine in- 



EMANCIPATION'— Before and After. 247 

struction to take no thought for the morrow. If he has a 
good dinner in the oven he is apt to forget for the time 
being that there is such a meal as supper, and he certainly 
does not give even a passing thought to the fact that if he 
has no breakfast in the morning he will be "powerfu' 
hungry." This indifference as to the future robbed 
slavery of much of its hardship, and although every one 
condemns the idea in the abstract, there are many humane 
men and women who do not think the colored man suf- 
fered half as much as has so often and so emphatically 
been stated. 

Abolition was advocated with much earnestness for 
many years prior to Lincoln's famous emancipation procla- 
mation. The agitation first took tangible shape during the 
administration of General Jackson, a man who received 
more hero w^orship than has fallen to the lot of any of his 
successors. To a zealous, if perhaps bigoted, Quaker be- 
longs the credit of having started the work, by founding a 
newspaper, which he called the "Genius of Universal Eman- 
cipation." William Lloyd Garrison, subsequently with 
"The Liberator," was connected with this journal, and in the 
first issue he announced as his programme, war to the death 
against slavery in every form. "I will not equivocate ; I 
will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch, and I will 
be heard," was the announcement with which he opened 
the campaign, which he subsequently carried on with more 
conspicuous vigor than success. 

Garrison handled the question of the relation between 
the white and colored people of the country without 
gloves, and his very outspoken language occasionally got 
him into trouble. The people who supported him were 
known as Abolitionists, a name which even at that early 



248 31 Y NATIVE LAND. 

date conjured up hard feeling, and divided household 
against household, and family against family. Among 
these Garrison was regarded as a hero, and to some extent 
as a martyr, while the bitterness of his invective earned for 
him the title of fanatic and crank from the thousands who 
disagreed with him, and who thought he was advocating 
leo-islation in advance of public sentiment. 

The debates of the days of which we are speaking were 
full of interest. Many of the arguments advanced teemed 
with force. The Abolitionists denounced the Eepublic for 
inconsistency, in declaring that all men were equal, and 
then keeping 3,000,000 colored people in enforced sub- 
jection. In reply the Bible was freely quoted in defense 
of slavery, and the light was taken up by ministers 
of religion with much zeal. It was not, by any means, a 
sectional question at that time. While the slaves were 
owned by Southern planters and landed proprietors, they 
were purchased and kept on borrowed capital, and many 
of the men in the North, who were supposed to sympathize 
with the Abolitionists, were as much interested in the per- 
petuation of slavery as those who actually owned the slaves 
themselves. 

In the year 1831, a negro named Turner, supported hy 
six desperate and misguided fellow countrymen, started 
out on what they regarded as a practical crusade against 
slavery. Turner professed to have seen visions such as 
inspired Joan of Arc, and he proceeded to fulfill what he 
regarded as his divine mission, in a very fanatical manner. 
First, the white man who owned Turner was murdered, 
and then the band proceeded to kill off all white men in 
sight or within convenient reach. Within two days nearly 
fifty white men Avere destroyed by those avenging angels, 



EMAN CIPA TI OX— Before and After. 249 

as they were called, and then the insurrection or crusade 
was terminated by the organizing of a handful of white 
men who did not propose to be sacrificed as had been their 
fellows. 

Turner's bravery was great when there was no resist- 
ance, but he recognized that discretion was the better part 
of valor the moment organized resistance was offered. 
Takinof to the woods, he left his followers to shift for 
themselves. For more than a week he lived on what he 
could find in the wheat fields, and then, coming in contact 
with an armed white man, he speedily surrendered. A 
week later he was hanged, and seventeen other colored 
men suffered a like penalty for connection with the con- 
spiracy. The nmrdcrous outbreak had other dire results 
for the negro, and caused many innocent men to bo sus- 
pected and })unished. 

A year later, Garrison started the New England Anti- 
Slavery Society, which was followed by many similar 
organizations. So intense did the feeling become that 
President Jackson thought it advisable to recommend 
legislation excluding Abolition literature from the mails. 
The measure was finally defeated, but in the Southern 
States, particularly, a great deal of mail was searched and 
even condemned. Rewards were offered in some of the 
slave-holding States for the apprehension of some of the 
leading Abolitionists, and feeling ran very high, every 
outbreak being; laid at the doors of the men who were 
preaching the new gospel of equal rights, regardless of 
color. 

Mobs frequently took a hand in the proceedings, and 
several men were attacked and arrested on very flimsy 
pretexts. In 183G, the Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, 



250 MY NATIVE LARD. 

was burned, because it had been dedicated by an anti- 
slavery meeting. So bitter did the feeling become that 
every attempt to open schools for colored children was 
followed by disturbance, the teachers being driven away 
and the books destroyed. Numerous petitions on the sub- 
ject were sent to Congress, and there was an uproar in the 
House when it was proposed to ' refer a petition for the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia to a com- 
mittee. The Southern Congressmen withdrew from the 
House as a formal protest, and the word "secession," 
which was subsequently to acquire such a much more sig- 
nificant meaning, was first applied to this action on their 
part. 

A compromise, however, was effected, and the seceding 
members took their seats on the following day. Feeling, 
however, ran very high. Some people returned fugitive 
slaves to their owners, while others established what was 
then known as the underground railway. This was a com- 
bination between Abolitionists in various parts, and 
involved the feeding and housing of slaves, who were 
passed on from house to house and helped on their road to 
Canada. Much excitement was caused in 1841 by the ship 
"Creole," which sailed from Richmond with a cargo of 135 
slaves from the Virginia plantation. Near the Bahama 
Islands one of the slaves named Washington, as by the 
way a good many thousand slaves were named from time 
to time, headed a rebellion. The slaves succeeded in over- 
powering the crew and in confining the captain and the white 
passengers. They forced the captain to take the boat to 
New Providence, where all except the actual members of 
the rebellino; crowd were declared free. 

Joshua Giddings, of Ohio, offered a resolution in the 




M.. n.^ 




•■ ! .'*- 4' 



^' ' M'^ 










EM AXC IP ATIOX— Before and After. 253 

House of Representatives claiming that every man who 
had been a slave in the United States vs^as free the moment 
he crossed the boundary of some other country. The way 
in which this resolution was received led to the resignation 
of Mr. Gidding-s. He offered himself for re-election, and 
was sent back to Congress by an enormous majority. As 
Ohio had been very bitter in its anti-negro demonstrations, 
the vote was regarded as very significant. The Supreme 
Court decided differently from the people, and a ruhng 
was handed down to the effect that fugitive slaves were 
liable to re-capture. The court held that the law as to 
slavery was paramount in free as well as slave States, and 
that every law-abiding citizen must recognize these rights 
and not interfere with them. Feeling became very intense 
after this, and for a time it threatened to extend far beyond 
rational limits. In the church the controversy waxed 
warm, and in more than one instance division as well as 
dissension arose. 

In 1858, a new phase was given to the controversy by 
John Brown. Ever}^ one has heard of this remarkable 
man, who Avas regarded by some as a martyr, and by others 
as a dangerous crank. As one writer very aptly puts it, 
John Brown was both the one and the other. That his 
intentions were in the main good, few doubt, but his meth- 
ods were open to the gravest censure, and according to 
some deep thinkers he was, in a large degree, responsible 
for the bitter feeling which made war between the North 
and the South inevitable. Probably this is giving undue 
importance to this much-discussed enthusiast, who re- 
garded himself as a divine messenger sent to liberate the 
slaves and punish the slave-holders. 

He conceived the idea of rallying all the colored people 



254 MY NATIVE LAND. 

around him in the impregnable mountains of Virginia, and 
having drafted a constitution, he proceeded to unfurl his 
flag and call out his supporters.* In October, 1859, he 
took possession of the United States Armory at Harper's 
Ferr}', interfered with the running of trains, and practi- 
cally held the town with a force of some eighteen men, 
of whom four were colored. Colonel Robert E. Lee 
quickly came on the scene with a detachment of troops and 
drove the Brown following into an engine-house. They 
declined to surrender, and thirteen were either killed or 
mortally wounded. Two of Brown's sons were among 
those who fell, and the leader himself was captured. He 
treated his trial with the utmost indifference, and went to 
the scaffold erect and apparently unconcerned. His body 
was taken to his old home in New York State, where it was 
buried. 

Abraham Lincoln must not be included in the list of 
enthusiastic Abolitionists, although he eventually freed the 
slaves. Li speeches made prior to the war he expressed 
the opinion that in slave States general emancipation would 
be ill-advised, and although his election was looked upon as 
dangerous to slave-holders' interests, the fear seems to have 
been prophetic in a large measure. It was not until the 
war had lasted far longer than originally anticipated that 
Lincoln definitely threatened to liberate the colored slaves. 
That threat he carried into execution on January 1st, 18G3, 
when 3,000,000 slaves became free. The cause of the 
Confederacy had not yet become the " lost cause," and 
the leaders on the Southern side were inclined to ridicule 
the decree, and to regard it rather as a " bluff " than any- 
thing of a serious order. But it was emancipation in fact as 
well as in deed, as the colored orator never tired of explaining. 



E MAXC IP ATI OA^— Before and xifter. 255 

Such in outline is the history of the colored man during 
the days of enforced servitude. Of his condition during 
that period volumes have been written. Few works 
printed in the English language have been more widely 
circulated than "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which has been read 
in every English-speaking country in the world, and in 
many other countries besides. It has been dramatized and 
performed upon thousands of stages before audiences of 
every rank and class. As a descriptive work it rivals in 
many passages the very best ever written. Much con- 
troversy has taken place as to how much of the book is 
history — how much of it is founded upon fact and how 
much is pure fiction. The ground is a rather dangerous 
one to touch. It is safest to say that while the brutality 
held up to scorn and contempt in this book was not general 
in the slave States or on plantations in the South, what is 
depicted might have taken place under existing laws, and 
the book exposed iniquities which were certainly perpe- 
trated in isolated cases. 

That all negroes were not treated badly, or that slavery 
invariably meant misery, can be easily proved by any one 
who takes the trouble to investigate, even in the most 
superficial manner. When the news of emancipation grad- 
ually spread through the remote regions of the South, 
there were hundreds and probably thousands of negroes 
who declined absolutely to take advantage of the freedom 
given them. Many most pathetic cases of devotion and 
love were made manifest. Even to-day there are numbers 
of aged colored men and Avomen who are remainino- with 
their old-time owners and declining to regard emancipation 
as logical or reasonable. 

Not long ago, a Northern writer while traveling through 



256 MY XATIVE LAND. 

the Soutli found au aged negro, whom he approached with 
a view to getting some interesting passages of local history. 
To his surprise he found that the old man had but one 
idea. That idea was that it was his duty to take care of 
and preserve his old master's grave. When the war broke 
out, the old hero was the body-servant or valet of a man, 
who, from the very first, was in the thick of the fight 
ao^ainst the North. The colored man followed his soldier- 

D 

master from place to place, and when a Northern bullet 
put an end to the career of the master, the servant rever- 
ently conveyed the body back to the old home, superin- 
tended the interment, and commenced a daily routine of 
watching, which for more than thirty years he had never 
varied. 

All the relatives of the deceased had left the neighbor- 
hood years before, and the faithful old negro was the only 
one left to watch over the grave and keep the flowers that 
were mowing on it in good condition. As far as could be 
learned from local gossip, the old fellow had no visible means 
of subsistence, securing what little he needed to eat in 
exchange for odd jobs around neighboring houses. No 
one seemed to know where he slept, or seemed to regard 
the matter as of any consequence. There was about the 
jet black hero, however, an air of absolute happiness, 
added to an obvious sense of pride at the performance of 
his self-imposed and very loving task. 

Instances of this kind could be mutiplied almost with- 
out end. The negro as a free man and citizen retains 
many of the most prominent characteristics which marked 
his career in the days before the war. Now and again one 
hears of a negro committing suicide. Such an event, how- 
ever, is almost as rare as resignation, of an office-holder or 



EMAKCIPATIOX— Before and Afler. 257 

the death of an annuitant. Indifference to suffering and 
a keen appreciation of pleasure, make prolonged grief very 
unusual among Afro- Americans, and in consequence their 
lives are comparatively joyous. 

One has to go down South to appreciate the colored 
man as he really is. In the North he is apt to imitate the 
white man so much that he loses his unique personality. 
In the Southern States, however, he can be found in all his 
original glory. Here he can be regarded as a survival of 
preceding generations. In the South, before the war, the 
truism that there is dignity in toil was scarcely appreciated 
at its full worth. The negro understood, as if by instinct, 
that he ought to work for his white master, and that duties 
of every kind in the field, on the road and in the house, 
should be performed by him. For a white man who 
worked he entertained feelings in which there was a little 
pity and a great deal of contempt. He has never got over 
this feeling, or the feehng which his father before him had. 
Down South to-day the expression " po' white trash" is 
still full of meaning, and the words are uttered by the 
thick-lipped, woolly-headed critics with an emphasis and 
expression the very best Avhite mimic has never yet suc- 
ceeded in reproducing. 

George Augustus Sala, one of England's oldest and 
most successful descriptive writers, talks very entertainino-- 
ly regarding the emancipated slave. The first trip made 
to this country by the versatile writer referred to was dur- 
ing the war. 

He returned home full of prejudices, and wrote 
up the country in that supercilious manner European 
writers are too apt to adopt in regard to America. Several 
years later he made his second trip, and his experiences, as 



258 Jir NATIVE LAXD. 

recorded in "America Revisited," are much better reading, 
and much freer from prejudice. 

"For full five and thirty years," he Avrites, "had 
I been waiting to see the negro ' standing in the 
mill pond.' I saw him in all his glory and all 
his driving wretchedness at Guinneys, in the State 
of Virginia. I own that for some days past the potential 
African, ' standin' in dp mill pond longer than he oughter' 
had been lying somewhat heavily on my conscience. My 
acquaintance with our dark brethren since arriving in this 
country had not only been necessarily limited, but scarcely 
of a nature to give me any practical insight into his real 
condition since he has been a free man — free to work or 
starve; free to become a good citizen or go to the devil, 
as he has gone, nunidanely speaking, in Hayti and else- 
where. Colored folks are few and far between in New 
York, and they have never, as a rule, been slaves, and are 
not even generally of servile extraction. In Philadelphia 
they are much more numerous. Many of the mulatto 
waiters employed in the hotels are strikingly handsome 
men, and on the whole the sable sons of Pennsylvania 
struck me as being industrious, well dressed, prosperous, 
and a trifle haughty in their intercourse with white folks. 
" In Baltimore, where slavery existed until the promul- 
gation of Lincoln's proclamation, the colored people are 
plentiful. I met a good many ragged, shiftless, and gen- 
erally dejected negroes of both sexes, who appeared to be 
jiist the kind of waifs and strays who would stand in a mill 
pond longer than the}' ought to in the event of there being 
any convenient mill pond at hand. But the better class 
darke3's, who have been domestic slaves in Baltimore fam- 
ilies, seemed to retain all their own affectionate obsequious- 



E M AX C IP ATI OX— Before and After. 259 

ness of uiauncr and respectful faiuiliarity. Again, in 
Washington, the black man and his congeners seemed to 
be doing remarkably well. At one of the quietest, most 
elegant and most comfortable hotels in the Federal Capital, 
I found the establishment conducted by a colored man, all 
of whose employes, from the clerks in the office to the 
waiters and chambermaids, were colored. Our chamber- 
maid was a delightful old lady, and insisted ere we left that 
we should give her a receipt for a real old English Christ- 
mas plum pudding. 

"But these were not the mill pond folk of whom I was in 
quest. They were of the South, as an Irishman in London 
is of Ireland, but not in it. I had a craving to see whether 
any of the social ashes of slavery lived their wonted fires. 
Away down South was the real object of my mission, and 
in pursuit of that mission I went on to Richmond." 

Mr. Sala proceeds to give a most amusing account of 
his ride from New York to Richmond, with various criti- 
cisms of sleeping-car accommodation, heartily endorsed by 
all American travelers who have read them. Arriving at 
Richmond he asked the usual question: " Is not the negro 
idle, thriftless and thievish?" From time innnemorial it 
has been asserted that the laws of meuni and tuum have 
no meaning for the colored man. It is a joke current in 
more than one American city, that the police have stand- 
ing orders to arrest every negro seen carrying a turkey or 
a chicken along the street. In other words, the funny man 
would have us believe that the innate love of poultry in the 
Ethiopian's breast is so great that the chances are against 
his having been possessed of sufficient force of character 
to pass a store or market where any birds were exposed for 
sale and not watched. 



260 3fY XATIVE LAXD. 

It is doubtless a libel on the colored race to state that 
even the majority of its members are chicken thieves by 
descent rather than inclination, just as it is a libel on their 
religion to insinuate that a colored camp meeting is almost 
certain to involve severe inroads into the chicken coops 
and roosts of the neighboring farmers. Certain it is, 
however, that chicken stealins^ is one of themostdanoferous 
causes of backsliding on the part of colored converts and 
enthusiastic sing-ers of hvnms in nes^ro churches. The 
case of the convert who was asked by his pastor, a week 
after his admission to the church, if he had stolen 
a chicken since his conversion, and who carefully con- 
cealed a stolen duck under his coat while he assured the 
good man that he had not, is an exaggerated one of course, 
but it is quoted as a good story in almost every State and 
city in the Union. 

Mr. Sala objects very much to judging a whole class of 
people by a few street-corner or cross-road loungers. The 
negro he found to be superstitious, just as we find them 
to-day. Even educated negroes are apt to give credence 
to many stories which, on the face of them, appear ridic- 
ulous. The words "Hoodoo" and "Mascot" have a 
meaning among these people of which Ave have only a dim 
conception, and when sickness enters a family the aid of 
an alleged doctor, who is often a charlatan of the worst 
character, is apt to be sought. It will take several gener- 
ations to work out this characteristic, and perhaps the 
greatest complaint the colored race has against those who 
formerly held them in subjection, is the way in which 
voodoo and supernatural stories were told ignorant slaves 
with a view to frightening them into obedience, and incit- 
ing them to extra exertions. 



EMAKC IP ATIOX— Before and After. 261 

For absolute ignorance and apparent lack of human 
understanding, the negro loafer to be found around some 
of our Southern towns and depots may be quoted as 
a signal and quite amusing example. The hat, as Mr. Sala 
humorously puts it, resembles an inverted coal scuttle or 
bucket without handles, and pierced by many holes. It 
is something like the bonnet of a Brobdingnagian Quaker- 
ess, huge and flapped and battered, and fearfid to look 
upon . 

"Hang all this equipment," this interesting writer 
goes on to say, "on the limbs of a tall negro of any age 
between sixteen and sixt}^ and then let him stand close to 
the scaffold-like platform of the depot shanty and let him 
loaf. His attitude is one of complete and apathetic im- 
mobility. He does not grin. He may be chewing, but he 
does not smoke. He does not beg; at least in so far as I 
observed him he stood in no posture and assumed no ges- 
tures belonging to the mendicant. He looms at you with a 
dull, stony, preoccupied gaze, as though his thoughts were 
a thousand miles away in the unknown land; while once 
in every quarter of an hour or so he woke up to a momentary 
consciousness that he was a thing neither rich nor rare, 
and so wondered how in thunder he got there. He is a 
derelict, a fragment of flotsam and jetsam cast upon the 
not too hospitable shore of civilization after the great 
storm had lashed the Southern sea to frenzy and the ship 
of slavery had gone to pieces forever. Possibly he is a 
good deal more human than he looks, and if he chose to 
bestir himself and to address himself to articulate dis- 
course, could tell you a great many things about his wants 
and wishes, his views and feelings on things in general 
which, to you, might prove little more than amazing. 



262 MY NATIVE LAND. 

As things go, he prefers to do nothing and to proffer no 
kind of explanation as to wlij he is standing there in a 
metaphorical mill pond very much 'longer than he 
oughter.' " 

One turns with pleasure from the severe, but perhaps 
not overdrawn, character sketch of the colored loafer, to 
the better side of the modern negro. The intense desire 
for education, and the keen recognition of the fact that 
knowledge is power, point to a time when utter ignorance 
even among the negroes will be a thing of the past. 
Prejudice is hard to fight against, and the colored man has 
often a considerable amount of handicap to overcome. 
But just as Mr. Sala found the typical negro, "standing 
in the mill pond longer than he oughter," a sad memento 
of the past, so the traveler can find many an intelligent 
and entertaining individual whose accent betrays his color 
even in the darkest night, but whose cute expressions and 
pleasant reminiscences go a long way towards convincing 
even the sternest critic that the future is full of hope for a 
race whose past has in it so little that is either pleasing or 
satisfactory. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

OUR NATIONAL PARK. 

A Delightful Rhapsody — Early History of Yellowstone Park — A Fish 
Story which Convulsed Congress — The First White Man to Visit 
the Park — A Race for Life — Philosophy of the Hot Springs — 
!Mount Everts — From the Geysers to Elk Park — Some Old Friends 
and New Ones — Yellowstone Lake — The Angler's Paradise. 

\ h^ELLOWSTONE PARK is generally included in the 
r^^ list of the wonders of the world. It is certainly 
unique in every respect, and no other nation, modern or 
ancient, has ever been able to boast of a recreation ground 
and park provided by nature and supplied with such mag- 
nificent and extraordinary attractions and peculiarities. It 
is a park upon a mountain, being more than 10,000 
feet above the level of the sea. Irregular in shape, it may 
be said to be about sixty miles across on the average, and 
it contains an area of 3,500 square miles. 

Mr. Olin D. "Wheeler, in an admirable treatise on 
this park, in which he describes some of the many wonders 
in the marvelous region traversed by the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, thus rhapsodizes: 

"The Yellowstone Park! The gem of wonderland. 
The land of mystic splendor. Region of bubbling caldron 
and boiling pool with fretted rims, rivaling the coral in deli- 
cacy of texture and the rainbow in variety of color; of 
steaming funnels exhaling into the etherine atmosphere in 
calm, unruffled monotone and paroxysmal ejection, vast 
clouds of fleecy vapor from the underground furnaces of 
the God of Nature; sylvan })arkland, where amidst the 

(263) 



264 MY NATIVE LAND. 

unsullied freshness of flower-strewn vallej^ and bountiful 
woodland, the native fauna of the laud browse in fearless 
joj and wander wild and free, unfretted by sound of 
huntsman's horn, the long-drawn \)\xy of the hound, and 
the sharp crack of the rifle. 

" Land of beauteous vale and lauo-hino- water, thunder- 
ing- cataract and windino; ravine ; realm of the Ice Kinof 
and the Fire King; enchanted spot, where mountain and 
sea meet and kiss each other ; where the murmurs of the 
river, as it meanders through heaven-blest valleys, becomes 
harsh and sullen amid the pine-covered hills which darken 
and throttle its joyous song, until, uncontrollable, it throws 
itself, a magnificent sheet of diamond spray and plunging 
torrent, over precipices, and rolls along an emerald flood 
betwixt canon walls, such as the eye of mortal has seldom 
seen." 

The history of this park is involved in a good deal of 
myster}'. About ninety years ago it was first discovered, 
but the information brought back to civilization by the 
explorers was apparently so exaggerated that it excited 
general ridicule. No one believed that the wonders 
described really existed. Even later, when corroborative 
evidence was forthcoming, skepticism continued. It was 
almost as ditficult then to make people believe the truth 
about the hot springs and geysers, as it is now to make 
people believe that it is possible for a man to stand on the 
edge of a hot spring, catch the choicest kind of fish in the 
cool waters of the lake surrounding him, and then cook his 
fish in the boiling water of the spring without taking it off 
the hook, or walking a single step. 

This latter fish story has the peculiar feature of being 
true. Several reliable men, including some who have not 



OUR XATIONAL PARK, 265 

allowed the ardent pursuit of Isaac AValton's pet pastime 
to blunt their susceptibility of veracity, have performed 
this apparently impossible feat, or have seen it done right 
before their very eyes. A year or so ago, when an appro- 
priation was asked for in Congress for the further preser- 
vation of Yellowstone Park, a member made this extraor- 
dinary possibility an argument in support of his plea, A 
roar of lauofhter succeeded his recital, and when the orator 
stopped to explain that he was merely recording an actual 
fact and not telling a fish story, there seemed to be danger 
of wholesale convulsion Avithin the legislative walls. 
Several of the amused Congressmen sul)sequently made 
inquiries and ascertained to their astonishment that, instead 
of exagrseration, the half had not been told, and that if a 
full summary of the attractions of Yellowstone Park were 
to be written, the immense shelves of the Congressional 
Library itself would scarcely hold the books that would 
have to be written to contain it. 

This little divergence is to afford an excuse for the 
incredulity of our forefathers, who made sarcastic remarks 
as to the powers of wild Western whisky, when pioneers 
returned from the Rocky Mountains and told them that 
there existed away up in the clouds an immense natural 
park, where beauty and weirdness could be found side by 
side. 

John Colter, or Coulter, is said to have been the 
first Avhite man who ever entered the natural portals of this 
glorious park. It was in the early days of the century 
that this remarkable man had his adventure. He was a 
member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was 
sent out to explore the sources of the Missouri and 
Columbia Rivers. He was naturally an adventurer, and a 



266 MY NATIVE LAND. 

man who had no ide:i of the meaning of the Avord 
"danger.'" The party had a ghmpse of Yellowstone 
Park, and Coulter was so enamored ^vith the hunting- 
prospects that he either deserted from the expedition })arty 
or obtained permission to remain behind. 

However this may have been, it is certain that Coulter 
remained, with but one companion, in the vicinity of the 
Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Accordins: to 
fairly authentic records, he and his companion were cap- 
tured by hostile Blackfeet, who showed their resentment 
at the intrusion upon the privacy of their domains by de- 
priving Coulter of his clothing, and Coulter's companion 
of his life. The chronic adventurer, however, spent four 
years among the more friendly Bannock Indians, who 
probably for centuries had lived in or near the park. lie 
had a very enjoyable time in the newly discovered region, 
and his adventures crowded upon each other, one after the 
other, with great rapidit}'. "When at last he decided to 
return to the abode of the white man, he took with him a 
fund of recollection and incident of the most sensational 
character, and before he had been at home with his own 
kindred a week, he had earned the reputation of being a 
modern Ananias, ten times more mendacious than the 
original article. 

Twenty or thirty years elapsed before any reliable in- 
formation was obtained about the park. James Bridger, 
the daring scout and mountaineer, went through the park 
more than once, and in his most exaggerated rhapsodies 
told of its beauties and of its marvels. But Bridger's 
stories had been tried in the balances and found wanting 
before this, and nobody worried very nuich over them. In 
1870, Dr. F. Y. Hayden and Mr. M. P. Langford 



OUR NATIONAL PARK, ?67 

explored the park on a more rational basis, and gave to the 
world, in reliable shape, a resume of their discoveries. 
Mr. Langford was himself an experienced Western ex- 
plorer. For many years he had desired to either verify or 
disprove the so-called fairy tales which were going the 
rounds concerning Yellowstone Park. He found a num- 
ber of equally adventurous gentlemen, including the 
Surveyor-General of Montana, Mr. Washburn, after whom 
the expedition was generally known. In 1871, Dr. Ilayden, 
who was then connected with the United States Geological 
Survey Department, undertook a scientific exploration of 
the park. He was accompanied by Mr. Langford, and the 
two men together tore away the veil of mystery which had 
overhung the wonderful resort among; the hills, and grave 
to the country, for the first time, a reliable description of 
one of the most magnificent of its possessions. 

The report was not confined to eulogj'. It included draw- 
ings, photograplis and geological summaries, and wound 
up with an earnest appeal to the National Government 
to reserve the beauty spot as a National Park forever. 
Several men arose to endorse the request, and in March, 
1872, Congress passed an act dedicating Yellowstone Park 
to the public for all time, declaring it to be a grand 
national playground and a museum of unparalleled and 
incomparable marvels. 

Since that time the park has gradually become better 
known and more highly appreciated. The Northern Pacific 
Kailroad runs a branch line to which the name of the park 
has been given, and Avhich connects Livingston, Montana, 
with Cinnabar, at the northern edge of the park. The 
road is about fifty miles long, and the sceaery through 
which it passes is astounding in its nature. 



268 31 Y NATIVE LAND. 

From Cinnabar the tourist is driven in large stages 
throughout the park. If at all reminiscent by nature, he 
thinks about the experiences of Coulter, to whom we have 
already referred as the pioneer white man of Yellowstone. 
Early in the century the park was occupied by Indians, who 
had scarcely come in contact with white men, and who 
had not learned that in the unavoidable conflict between 
races, the weaker must inevitably succumb to the stronger. 
Around the limpid streams and at the borders of the virgin 
forests, containing untold wealth, tents made of skin 
drawn over boughs cut roughly from trees, could be seen 
in every direction. All around there were rough-looking, 
utterly uncivilized Indians, who were carrying out their 
usual occupation of doing nothing, and doing it with ex- 
ceptional ability. 

The women or squaws were more active, but frequently 
paused in their work to look at the unfortunate Coulter, 
who, deprived of his clothing and absolutely naked, was 
w^aiting, bound hand and foot, for the fate that he had 
every reason to believe awaited him. His only companion 
had been killed the day before, and he expected every 
minute to meet the same fate. According to his own 
description of what follow^ed, strategy saved his life. An 
Indian, sent for the purpose, asked him if he could run 
fast. Knowing himself to be an athlete of no mean 
ability, but guessing the object of the question, he assured 
the Indian that he was not a speedy runner. The answer 
had the effect he anticipated. 

His thongs were almost immediately cut, and he was 
taken out on the open prairie, given a trifling start, and 
then told that he might save himself if he could. Coulter 
had run many a fast mile before, but he never ran as on 




Scenes iq aqd arouqa Yello-wstorie Parl^. 



OUR XATIOXAL PARK. 271 

this occasion. lie knew that behind him there were, 
among the indolent young Indians, many who could run 
with great speed, and his only hope lay in getting to cover 
ahead of these. Every long stride meant that much space 
between him and death, and every stride he took was the 
longest in his power. Again and again he looked around, 
only to discover to his astonishment that he had but just 
held his own. At last, however, all his pursuers except 
one were tired of the pursuit, and when he found this to 
be the case, he turned like a stag at bay and overpowered 
him. 

Then seeing that others of the Indians were taking up 
the chase, after a brief rest. Coulter made another great 
run, plunged into the river in front of him, and finally 
entered the labyrinth of forests and craters now known to 
the world as Yellowstone Park. Here, if his story is to be 
believed, he succeeded in making for himself clothing of 
some character out of the skins of beasts that he shot, and 
finally he fell into the hands of less hostile red men. 

So much of the early days of Yellowstone, and of the 
reminiscences which a first visit naturally conjure up. The 
park as it exists to-day is overcrowded with modern in- 
terests, and one only refers to these reminiscences by way 
of contrast. There are in the park at least 100 geysers, 
nearly 4,000 springs, and an immense number of miniature 
parks, large and small rivers, and other marvels. 

The park is about equi-distant from the cities of Port- 
land and St. Paul, and so many people have been attracted 
to it in recent years that a large number of very fine hotels 
have been built at a great expense. The hotels are open 
about four months a year, and the help to run them is 
brought from different States. The expenses are naturally 



272 MY XATIVE LAA^I). 

heavy, and hence the hotel charges are not nominal, al- 
though the tourist can generally limit the expenses incurred 
to the bulk of his pocket-book, should he so desire. If he 
includes in his calculations the absolutely free sights that 
he witnesses, the expense of a trip is certainly moderate, 
and ought not to be taken into much consideration. 

The Mammoth Hot Springs is one of the leading 
sources of attraction of the park, a tour of which is some- 
thinof no American of means can afford to miss. The 
springs are very hard to describe. They consist of a number 
of irregular terraces, some as large as five acres in extent, 
and others very small. Some are a few feet high, and others 
stand forty or sixty feet above the one next below. Few 
people really understand Avhat these springs are, or how 
the terraces are formed. One authority of eminence says 
that the rocks underlying the particular point are cal- 
careous in character, consisting mainly of carbonated lime, 
which is somewhat soluble in percolating earth water. The 
hot subterranean water dissolves a large amount of mineral 
matter in passing through the earth, which it deposits on 
the surface in passing through the air. By this process 
walls, embankments and terraces are built up, and as the 
minerals through which the water passes are varying 
greatly in color, so the deposits left on the surface are 
some of them red, other pink and others black, with 
yellows, greens, blues, chocolates and mixed colors abound- 
ing in immense numbers, sometimes harmonizing beauti- 
fully and sometimes presenting the most astounding 
contrasts. 

The water in the springs is not warm, but hot, and 
hence the name. Frequently the temperature exceeds 1(50 
deo-rees, in which case the coloring nuitter seems to be 



OUR XATIOXAL PARK 273 

washed out, and the terraces present a white appearance. 
On other occasions, where the temperature is less severe, 
the varying hues already referred to abound on every 
side. Sometimes this whiteness, or bleached-out appear- 
ance, is astounding in its effects. The true artist will 
stand for hours gazing upon it, and wishing that he could 
reproduce, ever so inaccurately, the intense beauties which 
surround him. 

Behind the springs, and blocking up the view on the 
south, is the mountain known as Bun sen Peak, the high- 
est within the range of the eye. Just across the open 
space, in front of the hotel at the springs, are the quarters 
of the National soldiers who patrol the park, and, to a 
certain extent at any rate, protect it from the vandal and 
the purloiner. 

In an admirable description of this scene contained in 
"Indian Land and Wonderland," a very delightful story is 
told of the long, low, flat and lava-capped mountain known 
as Mount Everts, in honor of Mr. T. C. Everts of Helena. 
Few know the story upon which the mountain owes its 
name, which is given as follows : 

Among the members of the first party that ever 
explored Yellowstone Park were Messrs. M. P. Langford, 
S. T. Hauser and T. C. Everts. There was also a military 
escort under Lieutenant Doane. The party proceeded up 
the Yellowstone River to the Grand Caiion, thence across 
to Yellowstone Lake, around its eastern edge to the south- 
ern end, whence turning west they followed down the 
Firehole River through the Upper Geyser Basin to the 
Madison River. Following this river out from the park, 
they returned to Western civilization — all but one of 
them. 



274 ]\IY yATIVE LAXD. 

On the nineteenth day out, September 9th, when mov- 
ing across the country bordering the southern shore of the 
lake, Mr. Everts became lost. The traveling here was 
difficult, owing to fallen timber, rugged heights and no 
trails, and he was not missed until camp was made at 
night. Mr. Everts was not seen again for thirty-seven 
days, when he was found by two mountaineers on the 
verge of what is now known as Mount Everts, perfectly 
exhausted, and partly deranged through exposure and 
suffering. On the very first day of his absence his horse, 
left standing and unfastened, with all the man's arms and 
camp equipments attached, became frightened and ran 
away. Everts was near-sighted, had not even a knife for 
use or defense, and only a field glass to assist him in 
escaping. He first managed to reach Heart Lake, the 
source of Snake River. Here he remained for twelve 
days, sleeping close by the Hot Springs to keep from 
freezing. His food was thistle roots, boiled in the springs. 
One night he was forced into a tree by a mountain lion,, 
and kept there all night. 

Finally, he bethought himself of the lenses of his field 
glasses, and thus was enabled to kindle fires. He wan- 
dered all alonff the western side of the lake and down the 
Yellowstone to where he was providentially found. He 
gave the story of his terrible experience in the old "Scrib- 
ner's Magazine," since become "The Century," and a thrill- 
ing tale it makes. In a country filled with a network of 
streams, abundantly supplied with animal life for food, 
fforgred with timber for fuel, the man nearly froze and 
starved and perished from thirst. Twice he was five days 
without food ; once three days without water. It was late 
in the season, and the storms swept down on him and 



OUR JSTATION-AL PARK. 275 

chilled him to the bone; the snows kept him prisoner in 
camp, or, when on his painful marches, blocked his 
progress. 

Naturally, he lost strength, and became hourly in 
danger of succumbing to the vast difficulties which con- 
fronted him. His sufferings were increased by the fear 
which was created by a large mountain lion, which got on 
Ms trail and followed him, evidently with a view to making 
him a feature of the menu of his next meal. It seems 
incredible that Mr. Everts should ever have escaped with 
his life. Fortune, however, came to his rescue at last. 
He was rescued and nursed back to life by good friends. 
To the plateau on which he was found, his name was given, 
although there are few who will remember the significance 
of the name. 

Norris Geyser is another of the almost miraculous 
features of the park. The basin of the geyser has been 
described as a weird, uncanny place, and the words seem 
w^ell chosen. Of vegetation there is practically none, 
because the underground heat keeps the ground always 
warm, and steam breaks out into the atmosphere at several 
points. The general aspect is drear and desolate, gray and 
dull, and yet there is something about it beautiful as well 
as uncanny. 

A geyser is always a source of wonder. The word is of 
Icelandic derivation, and signifies gushing. As applied to 
phenomena such as we are now describing, its applica- 
bihty is good, for, from the mouth of the geysers, there 
rushes from time to time an immense mass of boilino; 
water and steam, creating a disturbance of no ordinary 
character. It is assumed that the water hurled into the 
air to a great height while at boiling point, has risen to the 



27(> MY NATIVE LAXD. 

surface through masses of lava, which are reminiscent of 
volcanic ages far beyond the memory of mankind. The 
mystery of geological formation is too great to be gone 
into in a work of this character, but the bare contempla- 
tion of geysers, such as are seen at Yellowstone Park, 
reminds one of the wonders deeplj^ hidden in the bowels 
of the earth, unappreciated and unknown by and to 99 per 
cent, of the human race. 

At the Norris Geyser basin the noise is extraordinary, 
and people who are superstitiously inclined are awed at 
the rumblings and grumblings which seem to issue from 
the bowels of the earth. Eruptions of hot water and 
steam at irregular intervals burst forth, and the very road 
which crosses the adjoining plain has been bleached to 
almost perfect whiteness by the vapors. The crust of 
ground is very thin all around here, and indiscriminate 
exploring is dangerous. To slip through the crust into 
the boiling water beneath would inevitably involve being 
scalded to death, and the man who allows the guide to 
show him where to tread exhibits the greater wisdom. 

In direct contrast to this basin is the Elk Park. Yel- 
lowstone is celebrated among other things for being the 
home of an immense number of the most remarkable 
specimens of North American animals. The Government 
herd of buffalo in the park is of countless value, because 
it is really the only complete representation at the present 
time of the practically extinct species of flesh and hide 
producing animals which used to graze by the million on 
the prairie. The buffalo are comparatively tame. Most 
of them were born within the confines of the park, and 
seem to have realized that the existence of their kind in 
perpetuity is one of the greatest desires of the Govern- 



OUR XATIOXAL PARK. ^11 

ment. There tire a number of bears around as well, but 
they have lost their vieiousness, and enjoy life very hugely 
under somewhat changed conditions. They seldom hurt 
any one, but prowl around the hotels at night, and by 
eating up the scraps and leavings solve the garbage prob- 
lem in a satisfactory manner. 

Deer, elk, antelope and mountain sheep climb the 
mountains, and very frequently find their way into Elk 
Park or Gibbon Meadow. This is an exceptionally desir- 
able wintering ground, because it is surrounded by hills 
and mountains which keep off the worst of the winds, and 
there is, moreover, a perpetual spring of pure water. The 
meadow is probably the prettiest spot in the entire park. 
There is less of the awful and more of the picturesque 
than can be found elsewhere, and it is, in many respects, 
an oasis in a vast and somewhat dreary expanse of land. 

Golden Gate is another of the exquisite spots every 
visitor to Yellowstone Park seeks and finds. To reach the 
Golden Gate one must be a great climber, for it is high up, 
and the road to it is built along the edge of a cliff, which, 
in places, seems to be absolutely perpendicular. The gate 
is, however, worth reaching, and one is not surprised to 
hear that as much as $14,000 were spent in cutting out a 
single mile of the road to it through the rock. 

Leaving the Golden Gate, and continuing the tour of 
inspection, a valley of large dimensions is seen. The 
contrast between the rich green of almost faultless verdure, 
and the dreariness of the rocks left behind, is striking. It 
would seem as though nature had built up an immense 
barrier between the weird and the natural, so that the one 
could not affect the other. The Bible speaks oi the intense 
comfort of the shade of a great rock in a dry and thirsty 



278 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

land. A sensation of equal, if not greater, relief is expe- 
rienced in Yellowstone Park when one leaves the grand, 
death-like desolation around the Hot Springs, and encoun- 
ters the exquisite beauty of shrub land and timber but a 
few paces away. The groves of trees are in themselves 
sources of great delight, and also of immense wealth. 
Fortunately, they will be preserved in perpetuity for the 
American people. The lumber king cannot get here. His 
ravages must be confined to other reg-ions. 

Tlie valley into which the tourist has entered takes its 
name from the Swan Lake, a very delightful inland 
mountain scene. The lake is about two miles from Golden 
Gate. It is not a very large body of water, but its rippling 
surface extracts expressions of admiration from all who 
behold it. It has been described as a demure looking 
sheet of water, and there is something about the appear- 
ance of the lake which seems to justify the peculiar defi- 
nition. The canon forming the valley is like everything 
else in Yellowstone Park — a little out of the ordinary. On 
the one side there are lofty mountains, with eminences and 
peaks of various formation and height, while in the 
distance the great Electric Peak can be easily seen. We 
have already spoken of Yellowstone Park as being about 
10,000 feet above the sea level. Electric Peak, well 
described as the sentinel of the park, is more than 11,000 
feet hiffh. Viewed from a distance, or along the line of 
the valley, it is calculated to excite both admiration and 
awe. 

"Willow Creek Park, or Willow Park, as it is some- 
times called, lies due south. It takes its name from the 
immense growth of willow bushes which hide the ground 
from view, and monopolize the scenery and groundwork 



OUR NATIONAL PARK. 279 

entirely. None of these bushes can claim the right to 
be called trees, as the average height is inconsiderable. 
But they make up in density what they lack in altitude. 
The peculiar green of the willow is the predominating 
color, without any variation of any kind. The idea con- 
veyed to the mind is of a huge green carpet or rug, and when 
the wind blows freely across the valley, it divides up the 
bushes into little ridges or furrows, which add to the 
uniqueness of the scene. Springs of remarkably pure 
water, many of them possessed of medicinal power, abound 
in this neighborhood, and tourists slake an imaginary 
thirst with much interest at different ones of these. 

The Obsidian Creek runs slowly through this valley. 
Obsidian Cliff is the next object of special interest which is 
witnessed. It is half a mile long and from 150 to 200 feet 
high. The southern end is formed of volcanic glass, or 
obsidian, as true a glass as any artificially produced. The 
roadway at its base is constructed across the talus, and is 
emphatically a glass road. Huge fragments of obsidian, 
black and shining, some of it streaked with white 
seams, line the road. Small pieces are also plentiful. This 
flow of glass came from a high plateau to the east-north- 
east. Numerous vent pits, or apparent craters, have been 
discovered on this plateau. Mr. J. P. Iddings, of the 
Unites States Geological Survey, who has made a special 
study of Obsidian Cliff, contributes to the survey report 
for 1885-86 a paper that has in it much that is of interest 
to the unscientific mind. 

The Lower Geyser Basin is in some respects more pleas- 
ing than the Norris, although the desolation is perhaps 
even more apparent. People who have seen districts in 
which salt is made out of brine extracted from wells, state 



280 MY XATIVE LA]\^D. 

that the appearance in the Lower Geyser Basin is very 
similar to what is seen around manufacturing districts of 
that character. This basin is in the valley of the Firehole 
River, a strangely named stream, of a very beautiful 
character. In the basin itself the branches of the Firehole 
unite, and with the Gibbon River form one of the three 
sources of the Missouri, called the Madison, after the Presi- 
dent of that name. The Fountain Geyser is the largest in 
the neighborhood, and is one of the best in the park. It 
is very regular in its eruptions, and seldom fails to perform 
on time for the benefit of the onlooker. It sends an 
immense volume of water into the air, and resembles a 
fountain very closely. Its basin is very interesting, and 
gives a good example of the singular deposits left by a 
geyser. 

When the fountain is busy throwing out its volumes of 
water, the appearance is very peculiar. Little notice is 
given of an eruption, which takes place suddenly, 
althouirh at stated intervals. All at once the watcher 
is rewarded for his patience by having the stillness 
changed into activity of the most boisterous charac- 
ter. The water is hurled upwards in a mass of 
frothing, boiling and foaming crystals. The actual 
height varies, but frequently goes as far as thirty feet. In 
a moment the wall of water becomes compact, oblong and 
irregular. Crystal effects are produced, varying according 
to the time of day and the amount of light, but always de- 
lightful and peculiar. 

Close at hand are the Mammoth Paint Pots, in the 
center of the Firehole Geyser. We can explain the ap- 
pearance of the Paint Pot or Mud Bath much more easily 
than wc can account for the phenomenon. It is well 



OUR NATIONAL PARK. 281 

named, because it resembles a succession of paint pots of 
enormous size more than anything else that the imagina- 
tion can liken it to. The basin measures forty by sixty 
feet, with a mud boundary three or four feet high on three 
sides of it. The contents of the basin have kept scientists 
wondering for years. The substance is white, looking vcr}'^ 
much like ordinary paint, but, unlike paint, it is constantly 
in motion, and the agitation is so persistent that an idea is 
given that the Paint Pot's basin is the bed of a crater. 
The continual bubbling and vibration is very interesting 
in its effects, and the noise it makes is quite peculiar, not 
unlike a subdued hiss or a badly executed stage-whisper. 
Mixed among the white substance is a quantity of silicious 
clay of all sorts and conditions of color. This produces a 
variation in the appearance, but is merely in addition to 
what is otherwise marvelous in the extreme. Pearl gray, 
with terra cotta, red and green tints is the basic color of 
this boiling, seething mass, which seems to be continually 
at unrest and in a course of worry. 

The Excelsior Geyser is the most conspicuous feature 
of the Midway Basin, a collection of hot springs and pools. 
They are situated in the Midway Basin, and were originally 
called Cliff Caldron. Excelsior Geyser is in a continual 
state of anarchy, without law, government or regulation. 
It does just as it likes and when it likes. It seldom per- 
forms when wanted to, but when it does break out into a 
condition of fermentation, the effect is very magnificent. 
As one writer puts it, the beauties and exhibitions of this 
geyser are as far superior to those of all the others as the 
light of the sun seems to that of the moon. 

The geyser was for years regarded as the grandest 
spring in the park, before its exeptionally great features 



282 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

prevailed or became apparent. In the years 1881-82, the 
eruptions from this geyser became so terrific that it 
spouted water as high as 250 feet, and converted the gen- 
erally inoffensive Firehole River into a torrent of storming 
water. Rocks of large size and heavy enough to be very 
dangerous were hurled headlong from within the mysteri- 
ous confines of the earth, and were dashed around in all 
directions. For miles the terrific noise could be heard, and 
people who had been waiting for a phenomenon of this 
character, hurried across country to witness it. It is only 
now and again that a phenomenon of this kind is repeated, 
and the most skillful geologists are unable to give us an}- 
adequate forecasts as to when the next performance will 
take place. 

Rehearsals seem always in progress. Vast masses of 
steam rise from the crater or hole. Many people crowd to 
the edge of the basin and strive to penetrate into the mys- 
teries of subterranean happenings. The day may come 
when some scientific method of seeing through smoke and 
steam and enduring scalding heat without difficulty may 
be devised. Until then the mystery must remain unsolved. 

In exact contrast with the irregular and spasmodic 
action of the Excelsior, is the methodical, persevering 
action of Old Faithful. This is another of the great and 
popular geysers of Yellowstone Park. It is so uniform in 
its appearance that a man can keep his watch regulated by 
it. Every sixty-five minutes the well-named geyser gives 
forth a peculiar noise to warn the world that it is about 
to perform. Then for about five minutes a vast stream of 
water and steam is hurled into the air to the height of 
about 150 feet. The mass of boiling water measures six 
feet in diameter, and the volume discharged exceeds a 



OUR NATIONAL PARK. 283 

hundred thousand gallons each hour. Day by day and 
hour, for nearly twenty years, this industrious geyser has 
regularly done its duty, and afforded entertainment for 
visitors. No one knows how long prior to that time it 
commenced operations, or for how long it will continue. 

Leaving for the moment the consideration of geysers 
and hot springs and other wonders of this character, the 
sightseer gets a view of a very different nature. At 
Keppler's Cascades the stage coach generally stops to 
enable passengers to walk to the edge of the cliff and 
watch the cascades and foaming river in the black canon 
below. Then the journey proceeds through the Firehole 
Valley, and through leafy forests and open glades, until the 
narrow and tortuous canon of Spring Creek is reached. 
The scenery here is decidedly unconventional and wild. 

We soon reach the summit of the Continental Divide. 
Now the outlook is much expanded, and it becomes more 
majestic and dignified. The mountains overhang the 
roadway on one side and drop far below on the other. 
Heavy, shaggy forests cover the slopes and peaks, while 
tiny island parks, as it were, and cheerful openings are 
occasionally seen. The road winds about the mountain- 
flanks, now climbing up, now descending; the whole aspect 
of nature grows more grand, more austere; the air grows 
more rarified, and one becomes more and more exalted in 
spirit. Occasionally the mountains bre'ak away and you 
obtain a view far out beyond the narrow limits round about. 
Distant mountains are seen, and the feeling that there are 
nothing but mountain-walls about you impresses itself 
strongly upon one, and it is just about true. After several 
miles of such riding, and when you have begun to imagine 
that nothing finer can come, the road leads up to a point 



284 MY X. I Tl T 'IC L . iXD. 

that, almost before you know it, simply drives from your 
thouo-lits all else seen on this ride. 

It is a wonderful picture, and produces a state of exul- 
tation that to some must seem almost too strong to endure. 
The mountains, which rise high above, stretch also far 
below, and in every direction are at their very best. Proud 
and regal in their strength and bearing, they are still, from 
summit to the depths, heavily covered with the primeval 
forest. It would seem as if they really knew what a view 
was here unfolded, and to rejoice in the grandeur of the 
scene. Like a thread, you can trace the turns and lines of 
the road alons^ which the stao;e has come. But that which 
adds the softer, more beautiful element to a picture other- 
wise almost overpowering in its grandeur, and wichal stern 
and unyielding, is seen through a break or portal off to 
the south. 

Far away, far below, lies a portion of Shoshone Lake. 
Like a sleeping babe in its mother's lap, nestles this tiny 
lakelet babe in the mountains. It shines like a plate of 
silver or beautiful mirror. It is a gem worth crossing a 
continent to see, especially as there runs between the lake 
and the point of view a little valley dressed in bright, 
grassy green as a kind of foreground in the rear. There 
is thus a silvered lake, a lovely valley, with bright and 
warm green shades, and rich, dark-black forests in the 
rear. No one can gaze upon such a combination and con- 
trast without being impressed, and without recognizing the 
sublime beauty and grandeur of the park and its surround- 
ings. 

Yellowstone Lake is another of the extraordinary 
attractions of our great National Park. It is described 
as the hiofhcst inland sea in the world, and more than 7,000 



OUR NATIONAL PARK. 285 

feet above the sea level. It is, really, nearly 8,000 feet 
above the sea, and its icy cold water covers an area some 
thirty miles in length and about half as wide or about 300 
square miles. This glorious inland ocean is perched up at 
the summit of the Rocky Mountains, just where no one 
would expect to find it. Several islands of varying sizes 
are dotted over the surface of the water, which at times 
is as smooth as a little mill pond, and at others almost as 
turbulent as the sea. The shores are entirely irregular in 
their formation, and Promontory Point extends out into 
the water a great distance, forming one of the most 
peculiar inland peninsulas in the entire world. Along the 
southern shore, inlets and bays are very numerous, some 
of them natural in character, and others full of evidence of 
brisk, and even terrific, volcanic action. 

From the peculiar rocks and eminences along the shore, 
reflections are cast into the water of an almost indescriba- 
ble character. They are varied in nature and color, and, 
like the lake itself, differ from anything to be seen else- 
where. Another unique feature of this lake, and one that 
has to be seen to be understood, is the presence on the 
banks, and even out in the lake itself, of hot springs and 
geysers full of boiling water and steam. Some of these 
springs have wide and secure edges, or banks, on which a 
man can stand and fish. Then, on his right hand, he has 
the icy-cold water of the lake, from which he can obtain 
trout and other fish, until he begins to dream of a fisher- 
man's paradise. Dr. Hayden, the explorer, already 
referred to, was the first man to take advantage of the 
opportunity and to cook his fish unhooked in the boiling 
water to his left, merely making a half turn in order to do 
so. When the Professor first mentioned this fact, he was 



286 31 Y JSTATIVE LAND, 

good humoredly laughed at, but, as stated in an earlier 
part of this chapter, the possibility has been so clearly 
demonstrated, that people have long since admitted as a 
possibility what they had first denounced as an utter 
absurdity. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE HEKOES OF THE IRON HORSE. 

Honor to Whom Honor is Due — A Class of Men Not Always Thor- 
oughly Appreciated at their Worth — An Annateur's Ride on a Flying 
Locomotive — From Twelve Miles an Hour to Six Times that Speed 
— The Signal Tower and the Men who Work in it — Stealing a 
Train — A Race with Steam — Stories about Bewitched Locomotives 
and Providential Escapes. 

^■71 O one who has not given the matter special con- 
" ^ sideration has the remotest idea of the magnitude 
and importance of the railroad system of the United States. 
Nor has any one who has not studied the statistics bearing 
on the question the faintest conception of the cost of the 
roads built and in operation. The cost in dollars and cents 
for a mile of track has been ascertained to a fractional 
point. Expert accountants have figured out to a hundredth 
part of a cent the cost of hauling a passenger or a ton of 
merchandise any given distance. There are even tables in 
existence showing the actual expense incurred in stopping 
a train, while such details as the necessary outlay in 
wages, fuel, repairs, etc., have received the attention 
which the magnitude of the interests involved deserves. 

But the cost in human life and suffering of the great 
railroad system of the United States is quite another mat- 
ter, and one that does not come within the scope of the 
calculations of accountants, expert or otherwise. It has 
been said repeatedly that a man is safer in a railroad train 
than on the streets. In other words, the percentage of 
death and serious injury is said by statisticians to be lower 

17 (280) 



200 3ir NATIVE LAND. 

among men habitually traveling than among people who 
are classed as stay-at-homes, and who seldom take a rail- 
road journey. But while this is doubtless correct, so far as 
passengers are concerned, the rule does not apply to rail- 
road employes, and those who by their never-wavering care 
and energy protect the life and limbs of passengers, and 
make railroad travel ino- safe as well as comfortable. 

A celebrated divine, when preaching on the subject of 
faith, once took a railroad journey for an illustration. As 
he pointed out, with much eloquence and force, there could 
be no more realistic personification of faith than the man 
who peacefully lay down to sleep at night in his berth of a 
Pullman car, relying implicitly upon the railroad men to 
avert the thousands of dangers which had to be encoun- 
tered during the still hours of the night. 

Whenever there is a strike, a great deal is written about 
the men employed in various capacities by railroads, and 
every misdeed is exaggerated, and every indiscretion mag- 
nified into a crime. But very little is said on the other side 
of the question. The men to whom railroad travelers, and 
especially those who ride at night, commend their safety, 
are worked to the full extent of their powers, and are paid 
very small wages, when the nature of their duties and the 
hours they have to make are taken into consideration. 

The commendation of these men takes the form of 
deeds, rather than w^ords, and while so few have ever 
stopped to consider the loyalty and devotion of the poorly 
paid and hard-worked railroad num, every traveler who 
enters a railroad car pays silent tribute to their reliability. 
The passenger, as he lounges comfortably in a luxurious 
seat, or sleeps peacefully in his state-room, thinks nothing 
of the anxiety and annoyances of the men in charge of the 



HEROES OF THE IR02i HORSE. 291 

train, or of those who are responsible for the track being 
kept clear, and proper orders being given to the engineer. 

This official is a man of many hardships and dangers. 
To him is entrusted daily the lives of hundreds of human 
beings. He knows not how many, but he knows that the 
slightest error on his part will hurl perhaps ten, perhaps 
twenty, and perhaps fifty human beings into eternity, be- 
sides maiming for life two or three times as many more. 
He knows, too, that not only is he responsible for the safety 
of the men, women and children who are riding behind 
him, but also for the occupants of other trains on the same 
track. He knows exactly where he must run on to a side 
track to allow the express in the other direction to pass, 
and he knows just where he must slacken speed in order tt) 
get safely around a dangerous curve, or cross a bridge 
which is undergoing repairs, or which is not quite as sub- 
stantial as it would be if he, instead of millionaire railroad 
directors, had the control of the bridge construction and 
repair fund. 

To catch an idea of the responsibility of a locomotive 
engineer, it is necessary to ride a hundred miles or so in an 
engine. The author was given this privilege on a bleak, 
frosty day, early last winter. He was told by the ofiicials 
that he took the ride at his own risk, and as a matter of 
personal favor, and that he must not interfere with the 
engineer or fireman in the execution of their duties. The 
guest was received kindly by both engineer and fireman, 
and was given a seat whence he could see a long expanse of 
track over which the locomotive had to draw the train of 
cars. To a novice the sensation of a first ride on a loco- 
motive is a very singular one, and to say that there is no 
tinge of fear intermingled with the excitement and pleasure, 



292 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

Avould be to make a statement not borne out by fact. 
On the occasion referred to, the train was a special one,, 
carrying a delegation half way across the continent. It 
was about fifteen minutes late, and in order to make the 
run to the next division point it was necessary to maintain 
an average speed of more than forty-five miles an hour. 
As is almost always the case, when there is need for 
exceptional hurry, all sorts of trifling delays occurred, and 
several precious minutes were wasted before a start could 
be made. 

Finally, the conductor gives the necessary word, the 
engineer pulls the lever, and the irregular passenger finds 
for the first time in his life how much more difiicult it is to 
start a locomotive than he ever imagined. 

First, there is a distinct tremble on the huge locomo- 
tive. Then there comes a loud hiss, with a heavy escape 
of steam, as the huge pistons tug and pull at the heavy 
wheels, which slip round and round and fail to grip the 
rail. Then, as gradually scientific power overcomes brute 
force, there is a forward motion of a scarcely perceptible 
character. Then, as the sand-box is brought into requi- 
sition, the wheels distinctly bite the rail, and, in the words 
of the race-track, "They're off." For a few seconds pro- 
gress is very slow, indeed. Then the good work of the 
trusted locomotive becomes apparent, and before we are 
well out of the yards quite a good speed is being obtained. 
The fireman is busy ringing the bell, and the engineer, 
from time to time, adds to the warning noise by one of 
those indescribable toots made only by a steam engine. 

Now we are outside the city limits, and the train is 
making: excellent time. We take out our watch and care- 
fully time the speed between two mile-posts, to ascertain 



HEROES OF THE IROX HORSE. 293 

that about seventy seconds were occupied in covering the 
distance. Regardless of our instructions we mention this 
fact to the fireman, who has just commenced to throw a 
fresh supply of coal on to the roaring fire, adding a word 
of conofratulation. 

"Why, that's nothing," he replies, laughing, "we are 
going up grade now. Wait until we get along the level or 
go down grade, and we will show you a mile away inside 
of sixty." 

We are not particularlj' glad to hear this. Already the 
locomotive is rocking a good deal more than is quite pleas- 
ant to the uninitiated, and the contra-t between the hard 
seat and the pleasant one at our disposal in the Pullman 
car is becoming more and more obvious. Just as we are 
wondering how it will be possible to preserve one's equi- 
librium while ffoino; around a curve in the distance, a cow 
strays sheepishly on to the track, apparently some 200 
yards ahead. The engineer plays a tune with his whistle, 
and the cow proceeds to trot down the track in front of 
us. That singularlj' misnamed appendage, the cow-catcher, 
strikes her amidships. She is thrown twenty feet in the 
air, and all that is left of her rolls into the ditch by the 
side of the track. 

For the moment we had forgotten George Stephen- 
son's repl}^ to the member of the British Parliament, who 
asked him what would happen in the event of a cow 
getting in front of one of the trains George was proposing 
to run, if necessary powers could be obtained. His reply, 
which has lono; since become historical, was that it would 
be very bad for the cow. We remembered this, and 
agreed with the pioneer railroad man when we saw the 
unfortunate bovine turn a (|uadruple somersault and termi- 



294 JIY XATIVE LAXD. 

nate her existence in le!?s than a second. But a moment 
previously we had been wondering what woukl happen 
when the inevitable collision took place. 

The fireman observes that the occurrence has somewhat 
unnerved us, and in a good-natured way assures us that 
a little thing of that kind doesn't amount to anything. It 
is pretty bad, he says, when a bunch of cows get on a 
track, and he remembers once, several 3"ears ago, having a 
train stopped out in the Far West by a bunch of fat steers, 
which blocked up the track. "But," he adds, by way of 
parenthesis, "that was on a very poor road with a broken- 
down freight locomotive. If we had had "87," with 
a full head of steam on, we could have got through 
all right, even if we had to overload the market with 
beef." 

Now the train rushes around a curve in one direction 
and now in another. The engineer never relaxes his vigi- 
lance, and, although he affects to make light of the 
responsibility, and assures his somewhat nervous passenger 
that there is no danger of an}" kind, his actions do not 
bear out his words. We are running special, a little ahead 
of the mid-day express schedule, and at every station there 
are waiting passengers who herald our approach with 
delight, and, gathering together their packages, advance 
to the edge of the platform evidently supposing we are 
going to stop for them. That we are to dash through the 
station at a speed of fifty or sixty miles an hour, does not 
occur to them as a remote possibility, and the looks of 
astonishment which greet us as we rush past the platform 
are amusing. Finally, we reach a long stretch of level 
track, where the rails are laid as straight as an arrow for 
apparently several miles ahead. 



HEROES OF THE IliOuST HOUSE. 295 

" Now's your time, if you want to take a good mile," 
says the friendly fireman. 

We take his advice, and by aid of a stop watch, especi- 
ally borrowed for the occasion, we ascertain the fact that a 
mile is covered in fifty-two seconds. The next mile is two 
seconds slower, but the speed is more than maintained on 
the third mile. Reduced to ordinary speed figures, this 
means that we are making something like seventy miles an 
hour, and doing vastly better than was even anticipated. 
Our good work is, however, interfered with by the sudden 
application of the air brakes and the shutting off of steam 
as we approach a little station, where the signal is against 
us. A change in train orders proves to be the cause of the 
hindrance to our progress, and the engineer grumbles 
somewhat as he finds he will have to wait at a station some 
twenty miles further on, provided a train coming in the 
opposite direction is not on the side track before he gets 
there. The execution of this order involves a delay of five 
or ten minutes, but when we have the line clear again such 
good time is made that we accomplish our task and pull 
into the depot, where locomotives are to be changed, on 
time to the second. 

Such is a ride on a locomotive in broad daylight. At 
night of course the dangers and risks are increased ten-fold. 
The head-light pierces into the inky darkness, and fre- 
quently exaggerates the size of objects on and near the 
track. The slightest misunderstanding, the most trivial 
misinterpretation of an order, the least negligence on the 
part of any one connected with or employed by the road, may 
involve a wreck, to the total destruction of the train and its 
passengers, and the engineer feels every moment the full ex- 
tent of his responsibilities and the nature of the risks he runs. 



296 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

These responsibilities are increased ten-fold by the 
great speed necessary in these da.js of haste and hurry. 
Few of our great-grandfathers lived to see steam applied as 
a motive power for locomotion. Most of our grandparents 
remember the first train being run in this country. Many 
of those who read these lines can recollect when a philoso- 
pher placed himself on record that a speed of twenty miles 
was impossible, because, even if machinery could be con- 
structed to stand the wear and tear, the motion would be 
so rapid that the train men and passengers would succumb 
to apoplexy or some other terrible and fatal malady. 

It is less than seventy years ago since the time that the 
so-called crank, George Stephenson, ventured modestly to 
assert that his little four-and-a-half-ton locomotive, "The 
Rocket," was actually capable of Avhirling along one to two 
light carriages at the astounding velocity of twelve miles 
an hour. He was laughed to scorn by the highly intelli- 
gent British Parliamentary Committee engaged in the 
investig-ation of his new method of land-travelino^. At 
the present day, with regularly scheduled trains on many 
lines thundering across wide continents tirelessly hour 
after hour, at the rate of a mile a minute, it is the deliber- 
ate judgment of the most conservative students of railway 
science that the ultimate limit of speed is still in the far 
distance, and that 100 miles per hour will not be deemed 
an extraordinary rate of travel by the time the first decade 
of the Twentieth Century shall have closed. 

It is true that railroad schedules seldom call for mile-a- 
minute traveling, but the engineer is called upon very 
frequently to go even faster. The majority of people, 
even the most intelligent among those who habitually 
travel, obtain their conceptions of speed from the figures 



HEROES OF THE IRON' HORSE. 297 

of the time-table, forgetting that m nearly every instance 
considerable portions of the route must be traversed at 
much more than the average speed required to cover the 
total distance in the schedule time. There are very few, 
if any, of the fast express trains which do not, on some 
part of each " run," reach or exceed a speed of a mile a 
minute. Yet, by reason of superior roadway and well 
constructed cars, the accelerated velocity is unnoticed ; 
while running at from sixty to seventy miles an hour the 
jDassenger calmlj^ peruses his paper or book, children play 
in the aisle, and a glass brim full of water may be carried 
from one end to the other of the smoothly rolling coach 
without the spilling of a drop. All the while the nerves 
of those in charge of the train are kept at high tension, 
and, oblivious as the passengers may be as to the danger, 
actual and imaginar}^ the risks incurred are never for a 
moment lost sight of by the two men on the locomotive. 
The man in the signal tower has an equal responsibility. 
In some respects the burden upon his shoulders is even 
greater, because he has the fate of perhaps a score of 
trains in his hands, with the lives of hundreds of passen- 
gers. Now and then, Avhen the wrong lever has been 
pulled and a train is wrecked, we hear of a signal man 
sleeping at his post, but few of us stop to think how many 
thousand times a day the right lever is pulled, and how 
exceptional is the lapse from duty. There are heroes of 
the sea, and there are heroes of the battle-iield, but there 
are ten times as many heroes who perform their deeds of 
heroism on locomotives, in switch and signal towers, and 
in railroad yards. It may not be fashionable to compare 
these savers of human life with those who destroy life on 
the battle-field, but the valor and endurance of the former 



298 31 Y XATIVE LAND. 

is at least as conspicuous and meritorious as the daring and 
suffering of the latter. 

In "Scribner's Magazine" there recently appeared a 
most graphic description of a two-storied, square signal 
tower at "Sumach Junction." 

"This tower," says the contributor to the magazine 
named, "had two rows of windows on all sides and 
stood at the intersection of branches. At this point 
the trunk line resolved itself from four tracks into two, and 
here the OTavel track, which looked as if it had been laid 
by a palsied contractor, left the main line and respecta- 
bility behind, and hobbled out of sight behind the signal 
station with an intoxicated air. Beneath the tower, to the 
rio-ht hand, a double-tracked branch tapped a fertile coun- 
try beyond the sand hills. And beneath the signal tower, 
to the left, a single-tracked branch, only a mile long, 
brought South Sumach, one of those tiresome towns that 
manufacture on water-power, in touch with the middle 
man. This petty branch (as if the case had been with 
petty people), made more trouble than all the rest of the 
lines put together. The signal man found this out. 

"So Sumach Junction had its place in the world, and, 
perhaps, it was a more important one than that of many a 
complacent and opulent suburb. The heart of this little 
connnunity did not center, as a thoughtless person might 
suppose, in the church, or the commandery, or the 
grocery store, or the school, but in the signal tower. 
It was the pulse of the section. It was the life- 
blood of thousands of unconcerned travelers, whose 
lives and happiness depended on the intelligent vigi- 
lance of three men. These three took turns up there 
in the tower, locking and unlocking switches and signals 



HEROES OF THE IB OX HORSE. 299 

until one might expect them to faiut for dizziness and 
confusion. It was no uncommon thing in the signal tower, 
when one of the three wanted a day off, for the other two 
to double up on twelve-hour shifts. As long as the service 
was well performed, the Superintendent asked no ques- 
tions." 

The story came to be written on account of the pro- 
longed sickness of one of the three, which compelled the 
remaining two to remain on dut}^ until their eyes were 
often dim, and their brain power exhausted. One of these 
finally worked until nature overcame force of habit and 
reliability, and a collision would have resulted but for the 
returning consciousness of the overworked and thoroughly 
exhausted man. 

While this hero of everydaj" life slept, or rather lost 
the power of thought from extreme exhaustion, the heavy 
snow storm which was making the night doubly dark had 
so blocked the machinery of the semaphore that it refused- 
to respond to the desperate efforts of the Aveary signal 
man, who heard a freight train approaching, and knew 
that unless it was flagged at once it would dash into the 
rear end of a passenger train, which was standing in sight 
of the signal box, with its locomotive disabled. Finally, 
abandoning the attempt to move the lever, he rushed out 
into the night and forced his way through the snow in the 
direction of the approaching train. He was in time to 
avert the collision that appeared inevitable, but in his 
excitement overlooked his own danger, and was knocked 
down and terribly injured b}^ the train he flagged. 

Within the last year the largest railroad station in the 
world, in the yards of which there is an immense amount 
of traffic, and from whose signal towers are worked 



300 MY NATIVE LAND. 

switches and signals innumerable, has been opened. This 
immense station is situated at St. Louis. It covers an 
area of about twelve acres, and is larger than the two 
magnificent depots of Philadelphia combined. The second 
largest railroad station in the world is at Frankfort, 
Germanv. The third in order of size is the Readins: 
Station at Philadelphia. The four next largest being the 
Pennsylvania Depot at Philadelphia, St. Pancras Station 
in London, England, the Pennsylvania Depot in Jersey 
City, and the Grand Central Depot in New York City. 

"We have all heard of peculiar thefts from time to time, 
and the records of stolen stoves and other heavy articles 
seem to show that few things are sufficiently bulky to be 
absolutely secure from the peculator or kleptomaniac. But 
to steal a train seems to the average mind an impossibility, 
though under some conditions it is even easy. During the 
crusade of the Commonwealers in 1894, more than one 
train was stolen. All that was required was a sufficient 
force to overcome the train crew at some small station or 
water tank, and one or two men who knew how to turn on 
steam and keep up a fire. 

History tells of a much more remarkable case of train 
stealing, with events of startling bravery and hair-breadth 
escapes connected with it. We refer to the great railroad 
raid in Georgia during the year 1862, when a handful of 
intrepid heroes invaded a hostile country, deliberately stole 
a locomotive, and came within an ace of getting it safely 
delivered into the hands of their friends. 

A monument, surmounted by the model of a loco- 
motive, was erected four or five years ago to commemorate 
an event without precedent and without imitation. The 
story of the raid reads like fiction, but every incident we 



HEROES OF THE IROy HORSE. 301 

record is one of fact. Every danger narrated was run. 
Every difficulty was actually encountered, and the ultimate 
failure came about exactly as stated. 

Generals Grant and Buell were at the time marching 
towards Corinth, Mississippi, where a junction was to be 
made. The Confederate troops were concentrating at the 
same point, and there was immediate trouble brewing. 
General Mitchell, who was in command of one of Buell's 
divisions, had advanced as far as Iluntsville, Alabama, and 
another detachment had got within thirty miles of Chatta- 
nooga. It was deemed advisable, and even necessary, to 
cut off the railway communication between Chattanooga 
and the East and South, and James J. Andrews was 
selected by General Buell for the task. 

Andrews picked out twenty-four spirits like unto him- 
self, who entered the enemy's territory in ordinary 
Southern dress, and without any other arms than re- 
volvers. 

Their purpose was to capture a train, burn the bridges 
on the northern part of the Georgia State Railroad, and 
also on the East Tennessee Railroad, where it approaches 
the Georgia State line, thus completely isolating Chatta- 
nooga, which was then virtually ungarrisoued. These men 
rendezvoused at Marietta, Georgia, more than 200 miles 
from the point of departure, having (with the exception of 
five, who were captured en route or belated) made their 
way thither in small detachments of three and four. The 
railroad at Marietta was found to be crowded with trains, 
and many soldiers were among the passengers. 

After much reconnoitering, it was determined to cap- 
ture a train at Big Shanty, a few miles north of Marietta, 
and, purchasing tickets for different stations a^ong the 



302 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

line in the direction of Cliattanooga, the party, which 
included two engineers, reached Big Shanty. 

While the conductor, the engineer, and most of the 
passengers were at breakfast, the train was seized, and be- 
ing properly manned, after the uncoupling of the passenger 
cars, was started on its fierce race northward. Think of 
the exploit — twenty men, with a hostile army about them, 
setting out thus bravely on a long and difficult road crowded 
with enemies. 

Of course the theft of the train produced great 
consternation, but the captors got away in safety, stop- 
ping frequently for the purpose of tearing up the track, 
cutting telegraph wires, etc. Andrews informed the people 
at the stations that he was an agent of General Beauregard, 
running an impressed powder train through to Corinth, 
and generally this silenced their doubts, though some 
acted suspiciously. 

The first serious obstacle was met at Kingston, thirty 
miles on the journey. Here the captors and their train 
were obliged to wait until three trains south-bound passed by. 
For an hour and five minutes they remained in this most 
critical position, sixteen men being shut up in the box-car, 
personating Beauregard's ammunition. Just as the train 
got away from Kingston two pursuers appeared, being 
Captain W. A. Fuller, the conductor of the stolen train, 
and an officer who happened to be aboard of it at the time it 
was run out from Big Shanty. Finding a hand-car, they 
had manned it and pushed forward until they had found 
an old locomotive standing with steam up on a side track, 
which they immediately loaded with soldiers and hurried 
forward with flying wheels in pursuit, until Kingston was 
reached, where they took the eno-ine and a car of one of 



HEROES OF THE IRON- HORSE. 303 

the waiting trains, and with forty armed Confederates 
continued the journey. 

It was now nip and tuck, with one engine rushing 
wildly after another. To wreck the pursuing train was 
the only tangible hope of the fugitives, who stopped again 
and again in order to loosen a rail. Had they been 
equipped with proper tools they could have done this easily, 
but as it was, they simply lost precious time. Once they 
were almost overtaken by the pursuing engine, and com- 
pelled to set out again at a terrible speed. At one point 
at Adairsville, they narrowly escaped running into an ex- 
j)ress train. Fuller, the conductor of the stolen train, and 
his companions, being arrested by the obstructions of the 
track, left their engine behind and started on foot, finally 
taking possession of the express passed at Adairsville, and 
turning it back in pursuit. 

When Calhoun was passed, the trains were within sight 
of each other. The track was believed to be clear to 
Chattanooga, and if only the pursuing train could be 
wrecked, the end would be gained. Again the lack of 
tools hampered the daring little band. They made desper- 
ate effort to break a rail, but the pursuers were upon them 
before they had accomplished it, and Andrews hurried on 
his engine, dropping one car and then another, wliich 
were picked up and pushed ahead, by the pursuers, to 
Resaca Station. 

Both engines were, at the time, at the highest rate 
of speed. Andrews at last broke off the end of his 
last box car and dropped crossties on the track as 
he ran. Several times he almost lifted a rail, but each 
time the coming of the Confederates within rifle ransre 
compelled him to desist. 



304 J/r XATIVE LAXD. 

A participant in the feat, in his narrative of the affair^ 
published in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," by 
the Century Company, says: 

"Thus we sped on, mile after mile, in this fearful 
chase, around curves and past stations in seemingly endless 
perspective. Whenever we lost sight of the enemy 
beyond a curve, we hoped that some of our obstructions 
had been effective in throwing him from the track, and 
that we would see him no more ; but at each long reach 
backward the smoke w^as again seen, and the shrill whistle 
was like the scream of a bird of prey. The time could not 
have been so very long, for the terrible speed was rapidly 
devouring the distance, but with our nerves strained to the 
highest tension, each minute seemed an hour. On several 
occasions the escape of the enemy from wreck seemed 
little less than miraculous. At one point a rail was placed 
across the track so skillfully on the curve, that it was not 
seen till the train ran upon it at full speed. Fuller says 
that they were terribly jolted, and seemed to bounce 
altogether from the track, but lighted on the rail in safety. 
Some of the Confederates wished to leave a train which 
was driven at such a reckless rate, but their wishes were 
not gratified." 

At last, when hope was well nigh exhausted, a tinal at- 
tempt was made. Additional obstructions were thrown on 
the track, the side and end boards of the last car were torn 
into shreds, all available fuel was piled upon it, and blazing 
brands were brought back from the engine. Reaching a 
long, covered bridge, the car, w'hich was now fairl}' ablaze, 
was uncoupled ; but before the bridge was fully on fire the 
pursuers came upon it, pushed right into the smoke, and 
ran the buruiuir car before them to the next side track. 




'"' .^j>C''-;sif 







"**-*f*" 






•-'.ft* ■ V. 









■'^^■^'^ H;ii 



\ 



^ 



Clirqbiijg PiKe's PeaK by Rail 



HEROES OF THE IROX HORSE. 307 

So this expedient also failed. With no car left, no fuel — 
every scrap of it having been thrown into the engine or 
upon the burning car — and with no means of further 
obstructing the track, the pursued party were reduced to 
desperation, and as a last resource, when within eighteen 
miles of Chattanooga, abandoned the train and dispersed 
to the woods, each to save himself. 

The good old locomotive, now feeble and useless, was 
left. According to some accounts it was reversed, in order 
to cause a collision with the on-coming train, but according 
to others, the steam was exhausted, and the engine just 
stopped for want of power. However this may have been, 
the hunters of the train become at once hunters of the 
train stealers, several of whom were captured the same 
day, and all but two within a week. Two of those who 
had failed to connect with the party were also captured. 
Being in citizen's dress within the enemy's lines, the whole 
party were held as spies. A court-martial was formed and 
the leader and seven out of the remaining twenty-two were 
condemned and executed. The others were never brousfht 
to trial. Of the remaining fourteen, eight succeeded by 
a bold effort in making an escape from Atlanta, and ulti- 
mately reaching the North. The other six failed in this 
effort, and remained prisoners until March, 1863, when 
they were exchanged. 

All sorts of stories have been heard from time to time 
concerning the supernatural side of railroading, and the 
peculiar and apparently hidden antics which locomotives 
occasionally are guilty of. The following story is well 
worth reproducing, and may serve as an illustration of 
hundreds of others. It was told by an engineer, Avho 
worked on the Utah & Northern Railroad years ago, before 

IS 



308 MY NATIVE LARD. 

that road became part of the Union Pacific system. The 
road was very rough, and save for a long stretch of sage 
brush alono; the Snake Elver north of Pocatello, it ran in 
canons, over mountains, and through heavy cuts of chiy, 
which was often washed down on to the tracks by the 
spring rains. It was, as it is now, a railroad rushed with 
business. 

It was the onlj^ line into Butte City, which had been 
struck a short time before, and was then giving promise of 
its future distinction as the greatest mining camp in the 
world. The shipments of gold and bullion were very 
heavy, and all the money for the banks in Butte and 
Helena was sent over this road. There were no towns 
along the line. The only stops were made at water-tanks, 
and such eating-houses as the railroad company had built 
at long intervals. It was a rough, hard run, and was made 
especially lonely by the uninhabited stretches of sand and 
sage brush, and the echoes from the high granite w^alls of 
the narrow canon. It was a dangerous run besides. The 
James gang of train robbers and the Younger brothers 
had been operating so successfully in Missouri, Kansas and 
Minnesota that other bandits had moved West to attempt 
similar operations. 

Finally, word came from the general offices of "Wells, 
Farsfo & Co. that several train robbers had been seen in 
Denver, and might work their way north in the hope of 
either securing gold bullion from one of the down trains 
from Butte, or money in exchange on an up train. After 
detailing these conditions, the engineer went on. 

"We got a new manager for the road, an Eastern man, 
who had some high notions about conducting railroad 
travel on what he called a modern basis. One of the first 



HEROES OF THE IROX HORSE. 309 

results of his management was a train, which he called the 
'Mormon Flyer,' running from Butte to Salt Lake, and 
scheduled on the time card to run forty miles an hour. 
We told him he never could make that time on a rough 
mountain road, where a train had to twist around caiion 
walls like a cow in the woods, but he wouldn't believe it. 
He said that if a train could run forty-live miles an hour in 
the East it could run forty on that road. The train was 
made up with a heavy 'hog' engine, a baggage car, express 
car and two sleepers. The first train down jumped the track 
twice, and the up train from Salt Lake was wrecked and 
nearly thrown into the Snake River. Then the trains ran 
from four to six hours behind time, and the people and 
the papers began to jest about the 'Mormon Flyer,' and ask 
•for a return of the old Salisbury coach line. The manager 
complained from time to time, and said it was all the fault 
of the engineers; said that we did not know our business, 
and that he would get some men from the East who would 
make the 'Mormon Flyer' fly on time. 

"Well, one evening in Butte I had made up my train and 
was waiting for orders, when the station-master handed two 
telegrams to me. One was from the manager at Salt Lake, 
and read: 'You bring the 'Flyer' in on time to-morrow, or 
take two weeks' notice.' The other was from the Wells, 
Fargo & Co. agent, at Salt Lake, and read: 'No. 3 (the 
north-bound 'Flyer') held up this afternoon near Beaver 
Canon. Treasure box taken and passengers robbed.' The 
best description of the robbers that could be had, was 
given. I showed both telegrams to the conductor, who 
held the train until he could get a dozen Winchesters from 
the town. In the meantime I had put the fireman on, and 
we put the finishing touches on the engine, No. 38 — a big, 



310 J/r XATIVE LAXD, 

new machine, with eight drivers, unci in the pink of con- 
dition. I told my fireman that if we couldn't pull her 
throuoh on time we would leave the train on the side of 
the road, and thus teach a trick or two to the man who 
wanted to run a mountain road on Eastern methods. I 
pulled that train out of Butte as though it had been 
shot out of a gun, and when we reached the flat below 
Silver Bar Canon I had her well set and flying like a scared 
wolf. The train was shaking from side to side like a ship 
at sea, and we were skipping past the foothills so fast that 
they looked like fence posts. The cab shook so that my 
fireman couldn't stand to fill the fire-box, so he dumped 
the coal on the floor and got down on all fours and shoveled 
it in. No. 38 seemed to know that she was wanted to hold 
down my job, and quivered like a race horse at the finish. 
"We made up the lost time in the first 100 miles, and got to 
Beaver Canon with a few minutes to spare. 

"It was when I slowed her up a bit in the caiion that I 
noticed something the matter with her. She dropped her 
steady gait and began to jerk and halt. The fire-box 
clogged and the steam began to drop, and when I reached 
a fairly long piece of road in the dark and silent canon, 
she refused to recover. She spit out the steam and 
ofursfled and coughed, and nothing that I could do would 
coax her alons:. I told the fireman that the old irirl was 
quitting us, and that we might as well steer for new jobs. 
He did his best to get her into action, but she was bound 
to have her own May. She kept losing speed every second, 
and wheezed and puffed like a freight engine on a moun- 
tain srrade, and moved about as fast. Finally, we came to 
a corner of a sharp turn, almost at the mouth of the canon, 
and then No. 38 gave one loud, defiant snort and stopped. 



HEROES OF THE IRON^ HOUSE. 311 

" 'She's done for now,' I said to the fireman, and we got 
out of the cab with our huiterns. 

"The cylinder-heads were almost opposite a high rock 
at the turns. Well, when we got there, Avhat do jou think 
we saw? Not a hundred yards ahead of the mouth of the 
canon, and as plain as day in the moonlight, was a pile of 
rocks on the track. On either side was a bunch of half a 
dozen masked men, with Winchester rifles half raised. 
Ten rods further on were a dozen or more horses picketed 
at a few cottonwood trees. 

"Well, you bet your life we couldn't get back to that 
train too quick. It was not midnight, and in two minutes 
we had the crew and passengers out with enough guns and 
revolvers to furnish the Chinese army. Passengers, in 
those days, and in that countrv, carried guns. When the 
robbers saw that the train had stopped they started 
forward, to be met by a rattling fire. One of them 
dropped, but the rest ran for their horses and got away. 

"Now, then, yoxi can't tell me that there isn't some- 
thing in an engine besides machinery," concluded the 
engineer, as he turned to the other members of the 
Roundhouse Club. 

"The man who says there isn't, is a fool," was the 
answer from one, and the others nodded their heads in 
approval. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 

Early History of Manitou — Zebulon Pike's Important Discovery — A 
Young Medicine Man's Peril and Final Triumph — A Health 
Resort in Years Gone By — The Garden of the Gods — The Rail- 
road up Pike's Peak — Early Failures and Final Success — The 
Most Remarkable Road in the World — Riding Above the Clouds. 

^11^ ANITOU is a name which conjures up reminis- 
"^ li^ cences of legend and history, and it also reminds 
the traveler of some of the most remarkable scenes of the 
Rocky Mountains. It has been said that the man who 
knows how to appreciate natural grandeur and beauty, can 
spend six months in the vicinity of Manitou, and then come 
back six month later to find undiscovered joys and treasures 
of beauty on every side. 

The earliest reliable records concerning this spot date 
back to the year 180G, when Major Zebulon Pike discovered 
what he called the Great Snow Mountain. This, one 
of the loftiest of the Rockies, is now known as Pike's Peak 
after its discoverer, or at any rate after the man who first 
described it for the benefit of the public. 

It is on record that when Major Pike was crossing Col- 
orado, nearly a hundred years ago, he saw on the horizon 
what he regarded as a misty cloud. When he finally real- 
ized that there was a mountain in front of him, he was at 
least a hundred miles away from it, and there were two or 
three smaller hills to be crossed before reaching it. After 
marching for over a week the party reached the Cheyenne 
Mountain, which they believed was the ascent of the great 

(312) 



A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 313 

peak, a theory which was soon disproved. Manitou is 
at the foot of this great mountain. It was first described 
at length by an English tourist who visited the Manitou 
Springs just half a century ago. He traveled alone, and 
exhibited not only an immense amount of bravery, but also 
unlimited judgment in evading the attacks of wild beasts 
and equally savage Indians. 

His description of the trip is full of great interest. He 
describes how a band of mountain sheep advanced to the 
edge of an overhanging precipice to gaze upon the in- 
truder, and how, a moment later, a herd of black tailed 
deer ran in front of him, with that contempt of danger 
seen only in animals which have not come in contact with 
human beings or modern weapons. The bii-ds, he tells us, 
were indifferent as to his presence. They sang almost 
Avithin arm's reach, and their rich plumage completely 
fascinated him. He continued in his hunter's paradise 
until he accidentally stumbled upon an Indian camp. No 
Indians were present, but the smouldering camp-fires 
warned him that they were not far distant. Later, he saw 
two Indians, who were evidently Arapahoes, carrying a deer 
between them, and he knew that the delightful hunting he 
had promised himself would not be forthcoming. 

He was shortly afterwards captured in a prairie fire, in 
Avhich he was in great danger of being destroyed ; nothing 
but the daring of his horse saved his life. He had heiu'd 
from the friendly Indians he had met on his march that 
the Great Spirit had endowed the waters of the Springs of 
Manitou with miraculous healing powers, and he drank 
freely from the pure springs. These springs made Mani- 
tou a veritable Mecca for Indians of the West and South- 
west for many generations before the white men discovered 



314 MY NATIVE LAND. 

them. Pilgrimages were made across mountains and 
rivers of great magnitude, and wlien an Indian chief 
showed sicfns of failinsf health, and Avas not benefited by 
the machinations of medicine men, he was generally car- 
ried to Manitou, no matter how far the journey might be, 
or how great were the obstacles to be overcome. 

Among the many stories told concerning journeys of 
weeks' and even months' duration, one is exceptionally 
vivid, and is evidently fomided on fact, although supersti- 
tion has surromided the facts with so much coloring that 
they are hard to discover. The story runs that in days 
long gone by, a great chief, who had conquered every 
tribe of whose existence he was aware, fell sick and could 
not be benefited by the medicine men, who were sum- 
moned from every direction. A number of these unfor- 
tunate physicians were put to death as a penalty for their 
failure to restore health to the dying chief. Finally, there 
were very few medicine men remaining in the vicinity ; 
those who had not been decapitated having proved their 
strong desire for further life by discreetly retiring to parts 
unknown. 

One day tidings were brought the chief of a young 
medicine man in a neighboring tribe who had been over- 
looked by the searchers, but who had been phenomenally 
successful in wooing back health and prolonging life. The 
tribe had long since been reduced to a condition of subjec- 
tion, and the said chief sent a detachment of his braves, 
with instructions to bring back the medicine man alive or 
dead. 

The young man, who had been expecting a summons 
of this kind, did not display the alarm anticipated. Even 
when he was told that the old chief was certainly dying, and 



A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 315 

that it was impossible to help him in auy wa}^ he main- 
tained his stolid indifference and merely smiled. 

He carried with him a primitive vessel, filled with some 
mysterious fluid, upon the virtues of which he had implicit 
reliance. When he reached the camp in which the sick 
chief lay, he was summoned immediately before the ailing 
autocrat. That individual stated his symptoms, and then, 
instead of asking, as we are apt to ask our phj^sicians, 
whether there was any medicine available for them, he 
told the young medicine man that if no improvement was 
effected within a few days there would be a funeral in the 
village, and there would be one less medicine man in the 
vicinity. 

This somewhat startling introduction did not disconcert 
the young man, who poured out a liberal dose of the fluid 
he had brought with him, and made the old chief drink it. 
During the night he repeated the doses several times, and 
on the following day he kept up the treatment. To every 
one's astonishment the blood began to flow again in the 
veins of the once invincible chief, and those who had been 
pitying the J'oung medicine man began to congratulate him 
on his triumph. AVhen, after a few days, the improvement 
became more marked, the young doctor explained to the 
chief that the water he had iriven him had been brought 
from springs in the distant mountains, and that if the 
chief desired to obtain another lease of life, he must visit 
those springs and remain there for some weeks. 

With the enthusiasm of renewed vigor, the old man 
promptly agreed to the suggestion, and in a few days 
arrangements were complete for a grand march over the 
Kocky Mountains to Manitou. Tradition tells of the 
splendor of the march, and of the wav in which obstruc- 



316 3IY NATIVE LAND. 

tioDS and hindrauces were overcome. Finally, the great 
mountain was seen in the distance, and a few days later a 
halt was made at the springs. Here the old chief Avas 
given a regular treatment, and in a few days he was able 
to walk as vigorously as ever. Finally, he returned to his 
tribe, not only renewed in health, but also renewed in 
youth. The records of his race state that his appearance 
was entirely changed, and that, instead of looking like an 
old man, his features.were those of a youth in his twenties. 
The chief lived many years, and finally died in battle. 

The fame of his cure naturally spread abroad with 
great rapidity. The old man was so well known that he 
became a walking testimonial of the merits of the springs, 
and expeditions without number were in consequence made 
to them. White people, as they came in contact with the 
Indians of the Far West, heard of the springs from 
time to time and of this wonderful cure. By man}' the 
stories were confounded with the legends concerning the 
search of Ponce de Leon for the fountain of perpetual 
youth. Later, however, more thorough investigation was 
made, and for more than a generation the truth, as well as 
the legends of Manitou, have been generally known. 

As a result, a great watering place has sprung up on 
the site of what was once a mysterious resting place of the 
Indians, and a retreat which it was dangerous to enter. 
About 2,000 people live here, and during the season there 
are often 3,000 or 4,000 health-seekers in addition. There 
is a grand avenue through the village eighty feet wide and 
well kept. Instead of being laid out in a mathematically 
straight line, it follows the meanderings of the Eiver 
Fontaine-qui-Bouille. This feature gives it a novel as 
well as a delightful appearance. There is also a little 



A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 317 

park, which possesses features not to be found in the 
recreation grounds of large cities, and there is a foot-path 
known as Lover's Lane, which is so romantic in its appear- 
ance that it is obviously well known. 

The springs of Manitou are naturally the most interest- 
ing feature of the place. The Shoshone Spring, in the 
center of the village, is, perhaps, the best known. The 
Navajo Spring is but a few yards distant, and is consid- 
erably larger. The Manitou Spring itself is on the other 
side of the river, and is covered over with a very elegant 
spring-house. The Iron Ute Spring is in Engelman's 
Canon or glen, and is regarded by many as the best of all. 
Caves and canons innumerable abound in every direction. 
The Manitou Grand Canon is within two miles of the 
village. It presents the appearance of a natural mansion, 
with rooms several hundred feet long and high. The 
natural formations of the peculiar rocks present bewilder- 
ing combinations of galleries, columns and frescoes. Here 
is to be seen the wonderful stalactite organ. This, 
according to man}^ is one of the wonders of the world. 
It consists of a number of thin stalactites of varying powers 
of reverberation, and these play delightful tunes or at 
least tones. 

One of the great objects of a trip to Manitou is to gain 
a sight of the world-renowned, but singularly named. 
Garden of the Gods. The most direct road to reach it 
from the village is by way of Manitou Avenue and Buena 
Vista Drive, the latter being a well-traveled road, which 
enters the avenue on the left, about a mile from the town, 
as one advances towards Colorado City. The entrance to 
the Garden is past Balanced Rock, an immense boulder 
which stands directly to the left of the road, poised on 



318 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

such 11 slender base that it suggests an irregular pyramid 
standing on its apex. To the right, as one passes this 
curious formation, is a steep wall of stratified stone, draped 
with clingino- vines, and overgrown with evergreens. 
Pausing a moment on the brow of the elevation which is 
reached here, one can look down into the valley below in 
Avhich the Garden lies. To the west are the mountains; to 
the east the i^lains. The road which Avinds through the 
valley is a pleasant way. One's eyes and mind are kept 
busy beholding and recording the interesting views which 
here abound. 

No one knows why this valley was named "The Garden 
of the Gods." There is nothing especially garden-like in 
its appearance; but, doubtless through "apt alliteration's 
artful aid," the name has become greatly })opular, and it 
would be foolish to quarrel with it, or make any attempt 
to change it. There are, however, ample suggestions that 
Titanic forces have been at work here, and it requires but 
little imagination to ascribe these innumerable quaint 
sculpturings, these magnificent architectural rock works, 
these grand and imposing temples, not made with hands, 
to the agencies of the o'ods. Here are to be found carved 
in the stone by those cunning instruments of the hands of 
Nature — the wind, the rain, the sunbeam and the frost — 
curious, often grotesque, figures irresistibly suggestive of 
forms of life. Here stands a statue of Liberty, leaning on 
her shield, with the conventional Phrygian cap on her 
head; there is a gigantic frt)g carved in sandstone; 
yonder is a pilgrim, staff in hand. Groups of figures in 
curious attitudes are to be seen on every hand. 

Stone figures of the lion, the seal and the elephant are 
all found; indeed, a lively imaoination is not needed to 



A BAIL BO AB TO TUB CLOUDS. 319 

discover in this Garden of the Gods an endless variety of 
imitative forms of liuman beings, of birds and beasts and 
reptiles. These figures possess a curious interest and 
attract wondering attention ; but the notable and majestic 
objects here are the "Great Gateway" and the "Cathedral 
Spires," Two lofty tables of camelian colored sand- 
stone, set directly opposite each other, about fifty feet 
apart, and rising to a height of 330 feet, form the portals 
of the far-famed Gateway. They rise from perfectly 
level ground, and present a strangely impressive spectacle. 

The "Cathedral Spires" are of a similar character to 
the Gateway, but their crests are sharply splintered into 
spire-like jjinnacles. The forms assumed by the rocks 
here are remarkable indeed, but their color is still more 
remarkable. No sandstones of the East glow with such a 
splendor of carnelian hue. The striking contrast formed 
by these crimson crags outlined against the deep blue sk}^ 
and gilded by the high, white light of the unclouded sun 
of Colorado, cannot be described. 

One of the most visited prairie-dog towns is close to 
the Garden of the Gods. It is interesting to the tourist, 
and is generally visited on the return from the Garden to 
Manitou. The town is situated on the road which passes 
through the great Gateway to Colorado City, and may be 
seen on a little plateau to the left. There are a great num- 
ber of little hills of sand and gravel thrown up by the dogs 
around their burrows. Every fine day they can be seen 
at work around their dwellings, or sitting on their 
haunches sunning themselves, and chattering gaily with 
some neighbor. The burrow has an easy incline for about 
two feet, then descends perpendicularly for five or six, and 
after that branches off obliquely ; it is often as large as 



320 MY NATIVE LAND. 

a foot in diameter. It has been claimed that the prairie- 
dog, the owl and the rattlesnake live harmoniously 
together. 

Concerning this, Mr. "William G. Smith, the well- 
known naturalist, says: " Impossible. The burrowing owl 
will generally be seen where dogs congregate, and wher- 
ever the ground is undermined his snakeship is apt to be 
found; but rest assured there is some lively 'scattering' to 
get out of his way if he draws his slimy carcass into their 
burrows. The dogs have no desire to contest his right to 
it, and srive him all the room he wants." The doo;s at 
home are neat little fellows, and allow no litter to accumu- 
late around their doors. They go to bed early, and never 
go around disturbing their neighbors before daylight. 

Adjoining the Garden is a region of ridges. One ridge 
leads up to another, and that to a third, and so on. This 
broken country, covered with pine and cedar, and clothed 
with bunch grass and grama, makes a capital tramping- 
ground, especially in winter, when rabbits, mountain, 
grouse and sage-hens are numerous enough to make it 
worth wdiile to shoulder a gun. 

The way to reach the ridges is to take the road to the 
Garden of the Gods, and follow it till the Quarry Road is 
reached. Pursuing the latter up a gorge, and then turning 
to the left on a branch road, which zigzags up the sides of 
the gorge, one soon finds oneself on the top of a ridge. 
The rule in ridge-climbing is never to cross a gully, but 
always to keep on top. All the ridges in this vicinity con- 
verge to the main ridge, which overlooks Queen's Canon. 
This ridge bends to the northwest, and in two or three 
miles joins a still higher one, which, strange to say, will 
be found to overlook the Ute Pass, a thousand feet above 



.1 EAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 821 

the Fontaine qui-Bouille, which flows in the bottom of the 
caiion below — Eyrie, the site of a private residence — a 
most interesting glen, but not open to the public. The 
character of the monoliths in this caiion is more remark- 
able even than those of the Garden of the Gods. 

The Major Domo is a column of red sandstone, rising 
to a height of 300 feet, with a curious swell near the sum- 
mit, which far exceeds in diameter the base of the shaft. 
It looks as though it might fall at any moment in obedience 
to the laws of gravity, and it is not exceeded in this regard 
by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There is another glen of a 
similar character, about tAvo miles to the northwest, which 
is known as Blair Athol. It is a beautiful spot, but, 
lacking water, has never been used as a dwelling place. It 
abounds in wildly picturesque scenery, and possesses rock 
formations of strange shapes and brilliant colors. There 
are groves of magnificent pines ; and the view of the 
distant plains stretching to the eastern horizon is unob- 
structed, and of great interest. 

We have already spoken of the discovery of Pike's 
Peak. At the summit of this mountain, 14,147 feet above 
the sea level, there is a little signal service station, which 
can be reached by railway. When the mountain was first 
discovered several efforts were made to reach the summit, 
but without success. Major Pike himself recorded his 
opinion that it would be impossible for any human being 
to ascend to the summit. In these days of engineering 
progress there is, however, no such word as "impossible." 
Several enthusiasts talked as far back as twenty years 
ago of the possibility of a railroad to the very summit 
of the once inaccessible peak, and fifteen years ago 
a survey was made, with a view to building a rail- 



322 MY NATIVE LA^D. 

road up the moimtain, by a series of curves and 
nooks. 

It was believed possible by the engineers that a railroad 
of standard gauge and equipment could be operated with- 
out special appliances, and so strongly was this view held 
that work was commenced on the project. Eight miles of 
grading was completed, but the project was then abandoned 
in consequence of adverse reports received from experts, 
sent out for the purpose. Their statement was that no 
grade would be able to stand the force of the washouts, 
though, strange to say, all the grading that was accomp- 
lished stands to-day, as firm as ever. Three or four years 
later another project, destined to be more successful, came 
into existence. In 1889, grading commenced, and finally 
the w^ork was completed, and the summit of Pike's Peak 
can now be reached by railroad. 

The road itself is one of the most remarkable ones in the 
United States, and, indeed, in the world. The road-bed is 
fifteen feet wide, and there is not a single foot of trestle 
work in the entire construction. There are three short 
bridges of iron, and the precautions in the way of cross 
sections of masonry are very elaborate. The average 
ascent per mile is 1,320 feet, and the total ascent is nearly 
8,000 feet. In the center of the track, between the heavy 
steel rails, are two cog rails, of great strength. These are 
provided to insure absolute safety for travelers, one being 
for general use and the other as a kind of reserve. 

Special locomotives are used on the line. These were 
constructed by the Baldwin Company, of Philadelphia, and 
include the latest patents in engine building. When stand- 
in «• on a level track they appear to be at a slant of about 
8 per cent. When on a mountain road, like that of 




ROGLYPHIC BOULDERS FOUND IN CLIFF-DWELLERS' 
HOUSES. 




PICTURE BOULDER MARKED BY INFERIOR RACE. 





HIEROGLYPHIC BOULDERS FROM GRAVES. 



FOUND IN ANCIENT RUINS. 



Hieroglyphiic Merqoirs of Past Rges. 



.1 RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 325 

Pike's Peak, they arc approximately level. There are 
three wheels on each side of the engine, but these are not 
driving wheels, being merely used to help sustain the 
weight. The driving wheels operate on the cog rails in the 
center of the track. The cars also slope, or slant, like the 
engine. No couplings are used, so that one great element 
of danger, is avoided. The engine and the cars have each 
independent cog brakes of almost unlimited power. When 
traveling three or four miles an hour, the little train, with 
the locomotive pushing instead of pulling it, can be 
stopped instantly. When the speed reaches eight or nine 
miles an hour, stoppage can be effected in less than one 
revolution of a wheel. 

Not only is the ride up Pike's Peak a wonderful sensa- 
tion and a constant reminder of the triumphs of engineer- 
ing, but it is also a source of continual delight to the lover 
of the beautiful and awful in nature. About half way up 
the mountain is a most delightful little hillside retreat, aptly 
named " The Half- Way House." It is a very comfortable 
establishment within rustic walls. The pines and firs 
which surround it add a great charm to the outlook, and 
the cool mountain breeze is charged with very pleasing 
odors. Tourists frequently spend a night here and consid- 
er the sensation one of the most unique of a long trip. 

A tourist describing a ride up Pike's Peak by this 
singular railroad, says: 

" We are now far above timber line. On all sides 
can be seen strange flowers, of lovely forms and varied 
hues. Plants which attain considerable proportions on 
the plains are here reduced to their lowest forms. It 
is not an unusual thins; to find a sunflower stalk in the 
prairies rising from a height of eight to ten feet; here 

19 



326 MY NATIVE LAND. 

they grow like dandelions in tlie grass, jet retaining all 
their characteristics of form and color. Beyond this 
mountain meadow are great fields of disintegrated 
granite, broken cubes of pink rock, so vast in extent 
that they might well be the ruins of all the ancient cities 
in the world. Far below flash the waters of Lake Morain, 
and beyond, to the southward, lie the Seven Lakes. 
Another turn of the track to the northward, and the 
shining rails stretch almost straight up what appears to be 
an inaccessible w^all of almost peerless granite. But no 
phj'^sical obstruction is formidable enough to stop the 
progress of this marvelous railway ; and passing the yawn- 
ing abyss of the 'Crater,' the line proceeds direct to the 
summit. The grade here is one of 25 per cent., and timid 
passengers will not escape a thrill of fear as they gaze 
over the brink of this precipice, although the danger is 
absolutely nothing. At last the summit is reached, and, 
disembarking, the tourists can seek refreshments in the 
hotel, which Avill cater to their wants, and then spend the 
time before the train returns in enjoying the view, and in 
rambling over the seventy acres of broken granite which 
form the summit. 

"The view^ from the Peak, once beheld, can never be 
forgotten. The first sensation is that of complete isolation. 
The silence is profound. The clouds are below us, and 
noiselessly break in foaming billows against the faces of 
the beetling cliffs. Occasionally the silence is broken by 
the deep roll of thunder from the depths beneath, as 
though the voice of the Creator were uttering a stern 
edict of destruction. The storm rises, the mists envelop 
us, there is a rush of wind, a rattle of hail, and we seek 
refuse in the hotel. 



"Pause a moment before entering, and bold up 3^our 
hands. You can feel the sharp tingle of the electric current 
as it escapes from your finger-tips. The storm is soon over, 
and you can see the sunbeams gilding the upper surfaces 
of the white clouds that sway and swing below you half 
way down the mountain sides, and completely hide from 
view the world ])eneath. The scenery shifts, like a drawn 
curtain the clouds part; and as from the heights of another 
sphere we look forth upon the majesty of the mountains and 
the plains, an ocean of inextricably entangled peaks sweeps 
into view. Forests dark and vast seem like vague shadows 
on distant mountain sides. A city is dwarfed into the 
compass of a single block ; water courses are mere threads 
of silver, laid in graceful curves upon the green velvet 
mantle of the endless plains. The red granite rocks 
beneath our feet are starred with tiny flowers, so minute 
that they are almost microscopic, yet tinted with the most 
delicate and tender colors. 

"The majesty of greatness and the mystery of minute- 
ness are here brought face to face. What wonders of 
creation exist between these two extremes ! The thought- 
ful mind is awed by the contemplation of this scene, and 
when the reflection comes that these vast spaces are but 
grains of sand upon an infiaite shore of crt^ation, and that 
there are worlds of beauty as far and varied between the 
tiny flowers and the ultimate researches of the microscope 
as those which exist, on an ascending scale, between the 
flowers and the great globe itself, the mind is overwhelmed 
with wonder and admiration. It is in vain that one strives 
to describe the scene. Only those who have beheld it can 
realize its grandeur and magnificence." 

Lovers of horseback riding reo-ard the vicinitv of Pike's 



328 31 Y XATIVE LAXD. 

Peak and Manitoii almost in the light of a paradise. A 
ride of a few miles in any direction leads to some specially 
attractive or historic spot. Crystal Park is one of the 
popular resorts of this kind. It is enclosed by high 
mountains on all sides, with an entrance which partakes 
of the nature of a natural gateway. In summer time this 
park is a profusion of bloom, with wild flowers and vines 
seldom seen in any other part of the world in such splen- 
dor. There are several elevated spots from which the 
surrounding country can be seen for miles. Above the 
park is Cameron's Cone. This is a mountain of much 
interest, although it can only be reached and climbed by 
hardy, athletic individuals. All around there are a profu- 
sion of canons. The Red Rock Cailon was at one time a 
popular resort. It took its name from the profusion of 
red sandstone on all sides. This natural wealth finally 
destroyed the beauty of the canon, which is now a mass of 
stone quarries. Bear Creek Canon has less of the practi- 
cal and more of the picturesque about it. A very charm- 
m<y brook runs down the center, and there are two or three 
small but very delightful falls. 

The Ridge Road is a species of boulevard recently con- 
structed for the use of visitors to Manitou. At places the 
o-rade is so abrupt that timid ladies do not care to drive 
down it. Otherwise it is a very pleasing thoroughfare, 
with fresh surprises and delights awaiting the tourist every 
time he passes along it. The view in every direction is 
most charming and extensive. Pike's Peak can be seen to 
o-reat advantange, and in the forty miles of the road many 
different features of this mountain can be observed. The 
road also leads to William's Canon. 

Cheyenne Mountain, although dwarfed somewhat by 



A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS. 329 

Pike's Peak, i.s deserving of notice. It is very massive in 
its form, and its sides are almost covered bv caiions, 
brooklets and waterfalls. Two vast gorges, know as the 
North and South Caiions, are esi^ecially asked for by 
visitors. The walls of these gorges are of rich granite, 
and stand perpendicular on each side a thousand feet high. 
The effect is very wonderful in a variety of ways. In the 
South Canon are the celebrated Seven Falls, which were 
immortalized by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, the well-known 
jDoetess, whose remains wore interred on Cheyenne Moun- 
tain by her own request. The Seven Lakes must also be 
seen by all visitors to the Mauitou region, and there are so 
many more special features to be examined and treasures 
to be discovered that, no matter how long one stays in the 
neighborhood, a pano^ of regret is felt when the visit is 
brought to a termination. 

There are other spots in America where more awful 
scenes can be encountered. There are few, however, 
where the combinations are so delightful or the general 
views so attractive and varvins:. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 

The Grand Canon of the Colorado — Niagara Outdone — The Course of 
the Colorado River — A Survey Party Through the Canon — Experi- 
ences of a Terrible Night — Wonderful Contrasts of Color in the 
Massive Rocks — A Natural Wall a Thousand Feet High — Hiero- 
glyphics which have Never been Deciphered — Relics of a Superior 
Race — Conjecture as to the Origin of the Ancient Bearded White 
Men. 

£[YT I E have already spoken of Niagara as one of the 
^■'^■^^ wonders of the world, and one of the most 
sought-after beauty spots of America. We will now de- 
vote a few pages to a description of a far more remarkable 
natural wonder and to a phenomenon which, were it situ- 
ated nearer the center of population, would have long 
since outclassed even Niagara as a tourist's Mecca. 

Reference is made to the Grand Canon of the Colorado. 

Few people have the slightest conception of the mag- 
nitude or awfulness of this canon. It is clearly one of the 
wonders of the world, and its vastness is such that to ex- 
plore it from end to end is a work of the greatest possible 
difficulty. 

Even in area, the caiion is extraordinary. It is large 
enough to contain more than one Old World country. It is 
long enough to stretch across some of the largest States in 
the Union. Some of the smaller New England States 
would be absolutely swallowed up in the yawning abyss 
could thej-^, by any means, be removed to it bodily. An 
express train running at a high rate of speed, without a 

(330> 



INTO THE BOWELS OE THE EABTH. 331 

single stop and on a first-class road-bed, could hardly get 
from one end of the canon to the other in less than five 
hours, and an ordinary train with the usual percentage of 
stoppage would about make the distance between morning 
and evening. 

Reduced to the record of cold figures, the Grand Canon 
is made up of a series of chasms measuring about 220 
miles in length, as much as 12 miles in width, and fre- 
quently as much as 7,000 feet in depth. 

This marvelous feature of American scenery is very 
fully described in "Our Own Country," published by the 
National Publishing Company. In describing the cafion, 
that profusely illustrated work says that the figures quoted 
"do not readily strike a responsive chord in the human 
mind, for the simple reason that they involve something 
utterly different from anything that more than 99 per 
cent, of the inhabitants of the world have ever seen. 
The man who gazes upon Niagara for the first time, is 
astounded at the depth of the gorge as well as at the force 
of the water ; and he who has seen Niagara can appreciate 
somewhat the marvels of the Grand Caiion, when he bears 
in mind that the great wonder of the Western World is for 
miles at a stretch more than fifty times as deep as the 
falls and the gorge, generally admitted to be the most 
awful scenic grandeur within reach of the ordinary trav- 
eler. Nor is this all. Visitors to Paris who have enjoyed 
a bird's-eye view of the gay citj^ from the summit of Eifel 
Tower, have felt terribly impressed with its immense 
altitude, and have been astounded at the effect on the 
appearance of living and inanimate objects so far below 
them. How many of the Americans who have been thus 
impressed by French enterprise, have realized that in their 



332 MY KATIVE LAA^D. 

own country there is a natural gorge, at points of -which 
the distance between the summit and the base is more than 
five times as great as the height of the Eifel Tower?" 

The Colorado Eiver rises in the Rocky Mountains, 
crosses the Territories of Utah and Arizona, and then 
running between the last named and the State of Califor- 
nia, finall}^ empties its waters into the gulf bearing the 
name of the Golden State. For more than two hundred 
miles of its course it runs throusrh the goro-e known as the 
Grand Caiion, and hence it has been a very difficult river 
to explore. During the Sixteenth Century, some of the 
Spanish explorers, to whom this country is indebted so 
much for early records and descriptions, crossed the then 
undeveloped deserts of the Southwest and discovered the 
Grand Caiion. Many of the reports they made of the 
wonders of the New AYorld read so much like fairy tales, 
and seemed so obviouslv exaggerated, that little credence 
was given to them. Hence it was that their estimates con- 
cernino- the srorofe throuofh which the Rio Colorado Grande 
flows were treated as fables, and laughed at rather than 
believed. 

Major Powell, than whom few men have done more to 
enlighten the world concerning the wonders of the Far 
West, describes the caiion very aptly, and speaks in a 
most attractive manner of the countless canons and 
caverns, whirlpools and eddies, brooklets and rivers, fords 
and waterfalls, that abound on every side. In his first ex- 
tended description of the caiion, he stated that "every 
river entering it has cut another canon ; every lateral creek 
has also cut another canon ; every brook runs in a canon ; 
every rill born of a shower and living only in the showers, 
has cut for itself a canon ; so that the whole upper portion 



INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 333 

of the basin of the Colorado is traversed by a labyrinth of 
these deep gorges. About the basin are mountains; within 
the basin are canon gorges ; the stretches of land from brink 
to brink are of naked rock or of drifting sands, with here 
and there lines of volcanic cones, and of black scoria and 
ashes scattered about." 

Of late years thousands of people have been attracted 
to this great canon, although but very few have succeeded 
in exploring its entire length. Few, indeed, have been able 
to pass along the balcony of the canon, and to gaze up at 
the countless wonders of nature, piled one above the other, 
apparently up to the very region of the clouds. The com- 
mon notion of a canon, as Captain C. E. Dutton tells us, is 
that of a deep, narrow gash in the earth, with nearly 
vertical walls, like a great and neatly cut trench. There 
are hundreds of chasms in the plateau country which 
answer very well to this notion. It is, however, un- 
fortunate that the stupendous passway for the Colorado 
River through the Kaibabs was ever called a cafion, for 
the name identified it with the baser conception. At 
places the distance across the chasm to the nearest point 
on the summit of the opposite wall is about seven miles. 
A more correct statement of the general width would be 
from eleven to twelve miles. It is hence somewhat un- 
fortunate that there is a prevalent idea, in some way, that 
an essential part of the grandeur of the Grand Canon is 
the narrowness of its defile. 

As Major Powell expresses it, there are rather a series 
of canons, than one huge one. Wherever the river has cut 
its way through the sandstones, marbles and granites of 
the Kaibab Mountains, beautiful and awe-inspiring pictures 
are seen, while above there are domes and peaks, some of 



334 MY SATIVE LAyi). 

red sandstone and some of snowy whiteness. Cataract 
Caiion alone is forty-one miles long, and has seventy-five 
cataracts and rapids, of which fifty-seven are within a 
space of nineteen miles. A journey along the bank of a 
river with a waterfall every twenty feet, on the average, is 
no joke, and only the hardiest men have been able to ac_ 
complish it. In the spring of 1889, the survey party of a 
projected railroad from Grand Junction to the Gulf of 
California, made this journey, and from its published de- 
scription more actual information can be gleaned concerning 
the caiion itself than almost any mere verbal description. 

The surveyors had to carry with them, on their backs, 
for a great portion of the way, the limited supplies of food 
they took with them, because it was frequently impossible 
to s:et the boats along at all. When the boats were used, 
several were upset, and everything was uncertainty as to 
the bill of fare that would be presented at the next meal, 
even if there was to be a meal at all. Mr. Frank M. 
Brown, president of the railroad company, lost his life in 
one of the whirlpools. He was in a boat, a little ahead of 
the others, and seemed to be cheerful and hopeful. He 
shouted to his comrades in the rear to come on with their 
boats, and that he was all right. A moment later, his 
friends were astonished to see the boat gone, and their 
leader swimming around and around in a whirlpool, 
trying hard to reach smooth water. 

He was a good swimmer, and a brave man, but his 
efforts were futile, and finally he sank. The party waited 
and watched for hours, but were finally compelled to recog- 
nize the fact that their friend and leader was gone forever. 

It was determined almost immediately to beat a retreat. 
While the party was hunting for a side canon leading 



ly TO THE B O WEL S OF THE EAR TH. 335 

northward, through which they could make their exit, it be- 
came evident that a storm was brewing. Rain commenced 
to fall in a steady shower, and to increase in quantity. The 
surveyors had no dry clothing beyond what they stood up 
in, and there was no shelter of any kind at hand. They 
were near Vassey's Paradise, in the deepest part of the 
cahon they had yet reached. A storm in such a location 
had its awfulness intensified beyond measure, and the 
frightened men looked in every direction for shelter. 
Finally, about forty feet up the side of the marble cliff, 
the opening to a small cavern was seen. Into this Mr. R. 
B. Stanton, one of the party, climbed. There was not 
room enough for his body at full length, but he crawled in 
as best he could, curled himself up, and tried to sleep. 

A terrible night followed. At about midnight he was 
awakened by a terrific peal of thunder, which re-echoed 
and reverberated through the caiion in a most magnificently 
awful manner. He had been caught in storms in mountain 
regions and deep valleys before, but he had never felt so 
terribly alone or so superstitiously alarmed as on this oc- 
casion. Every now and then a vivid flash of lio-htninir would 
light up the dark recesses of the gorge, casting ghastly 
shadows upon the cliffs, hill sides, ravines and river. Then 
again there would be the darkness which, as Milton puts 
it, could be felt, and the feeling of solitude was almost 
intolerable. 

The river in the meantime had swollen iuto a torrent, by 
the drenching rain, w^iich had converted every creek into a 
river, and every feeder of the Colorado into a magnificent, 
if raging, river itself. The noise caused by the excited 
river, as it leaped over the massive rocks along its bed, vied 
with the thunder, and the echoes seemed to extend hundreds 



336 31 Y NATIVE LiiND. 

of miles iu every direction. What affected the stranded 
traveler the most was the noise overhead, the reverberation 
inducing a feeling of alarm that huge masses of rock were 
being displaced from their lofty eminence thousands of 
feet above his head, and were rushing down upon him. 

The night was passed, finally, and when the storm had 
spent itself, the survivors of the party succeeded in getting 
out of the canon and reaching a plateau, 2,500 feet above. 
They then took a brief rest, but with that disregard for 
danger which is characteristic of the true American, the}' 
at once organized another expedition, and a few months 
later resumed the task so tragically interrupted and marred 
with such a sad fatality. 

The trip through Glen Canon was like a pleasure trip 
on a smooth river in autumn, with beautiful wild flowers 
and ferns at every camp. At Lee's Ferry they ate their 
Christmas dinner, with the table decorated with wild 
flowers, picked that day. 

On December 28th they started to traverse, once more, 
that portion of Marble Canon made tragic by the fatality 
of the summer before. "On the next Tuesday," writes 
Mr. Stanton, "we reached the spot where President Brown 
lost his life. What a change in the waters ! What was 
then a roaring torrent, now, with the water some nine feet 
lower, seemed from the shore like the gentle ripple upon 
the quiet lake. We found, however, in goinof through it 
with our boats, there was the same swift current, the same 
huge eddy, and between them the same whirlpool, with its 
ever-changing circles. Marble Canon seemed destined to 
give us trouble. On Januarj' 1st, our photographer, Mr. 
Nims, fell from a bench of the cliff, some twentj'-two feet, 
on to the sand beach below, receiving a severe jar, and 



IXTO THE B WEL S OF THE EAR TH. 337 

breakiDg one of his legs just above the ankle. Having 
l^lenty of bandages and medicine, we made Nims as com- 
fortable as possible till the next day, when we loaded one 
of the boats to make him a level bed, and constructing a 
stretcher of two oars and a piece of canvas, put him on 
board and floated down river a couple of miles — running 
two small rapids — to a side canon, which led out to the 
Lee's Ferry road." 

The next day, after discovering a way out of the deep 
ravine, one of the party tramped thirty-five miles back to 
Lee's Ferry, where a wagon was obtained for the injured 
surveyor. Eight of the strongest men of the party then 
undertook the task of carrying the injured man a distance 
of four miles, and up a hill 1,700 feet high. It is indica- 
tive of the extraordinary formation of the Grand Caiion 
that the last half mile was an angle of 45 degrees, up a 
loose rock slide. The stretcher had to be attached to 
ropes and gently lifted over perpendicular cliffs, from ten 
to twenty feet high. The dangerous and tedious journey 
was at last accomplished, and the trip continued. 

Finally the unexplored portion of the canon was 
reached. For thirty miles down Marble Canon, to the 
Little Colorado River, the most beautiful scenery was 
encountered. At Point Retreat, the solid marble walls 
stand perpendicularly 300 feet high from the river edge. 
Behind these walls the sandstone lies in benches, and 
slopes to an aggregate height of 2,500 feet. Above the 
narrow ravine of marble, the color is mostly rich gia}', 
although the presence of minerals has in places imparted 
so many tints that quite a rainbow appearance is presented. 
Caves and caverns relieve the monotony of the solid walls. 
Here and there a most delightful grotto is seen, while the 



338 3IY NATIVE LAXD. 

action of the water rushing down the chff sides has left 
little natural bridges in many places. Countless fountains 
of pure, sparkling water adorn the smooth rocks, and here 
and there are little oases of ferns and flowers, which seem 
strangely out of place so far down into the very bowels of 
the earth. 

Below Point Hausbrough, named in honor of Peter M. 
Hausbrough, who was drowned during the first exploring 
trip, the canon widens rapidly. The marble benches are 
replaced by strata of limestone, and between the river and 
the rocks green fields and groves of trees become common. 
The view from the river, looking across this verdure, Avith 
sandstone rocks for the immediate background, and snow- 
capped mountains in the distance, is extraordinary in its 
magnificence and combinations. Between the grand junc- 
tion of the Little Colorado witli the main caiion and the 
Granite Gorge, there is about eight hundred miles of a very 
different section. Evidences of volcanic action abound. 
Rocks and boulders seem to have been blown out of 
position and mixed up all in a heap. The rocks are largely 
charged with mineral, and, as a result, almost every known 
color is represented, in the most remarkable purity. The 
river runs through a wide valley, with the top walls several 
miles apart. 

The Granite Gorge itself is entirely different. Here 
the great walls of granite start from the water's edge. 
The first few feet are usually vertical. Then, for a 
thousand feet or more, the rise is at an angle of about 
45 degrees, while occasionally masses of rock stamd 
out prominently and ovei-hang the river. Above the 
granite comes a mass of dark Gslored sandstone, Avith a 
vertical front. In many places it is perfectly black, the 



IXTO THE DOWELS OF THE EARTH. 330 

color being intensified by the brightness of the reel ljck)w. 
If an artist were to paint a chff deep red, with a jet bhick 
border along the top, Old "World critics would be apt to 
declare him insane. Yet this is really the coloring of this 
section of the most wonderful canon in the entire world. 

Although the canon at this point varies in width at the 
top from six to twelve miles, the river really runs through 
a narrow gorge, and partakes very much of the nature of 
a long rapid or cataract. For ten miles the fall averages 
twenty-one feet per mile, sufficient to make the current 
ver}^ dangerous even at low water, and something terrible 
after heavy rains or much snow melting. In one place the 
fall is eighty feet in about five hundred yards, and here, of 
course, navigation is practically out of the question. The 
explorers, to whom we have referred, were compelled to 
proceed with great deliberation at this point. Occasionally 
they ran the rapids, but very often the}' were compelled to 
lower their boats by means of lines, and even to lift them 
over exceptionally dangerous rocks. 

At the worst point of all, one of the boats, while being 
lowered by lines, was struck by an eddy and run tightly 
in between two rocks. It became necessary for men to go 
into the water to liberate the boat. With lines tied 
secufely to their bodies, some of the boldest of the 
explorers ventured into the water and tried to loosen the 
boat, or at least to secure the invaluable provisions and 
blankets on board. It was January, and the water was so 
intensely cold that no man could endure it more than a 
few minutes at a time, so that the process was a long and 
tedious one. Finally the boat was got out, but it took five 
days to repair it, and even then it was a very poor means 
of navigation. A few days later, a still more powerful 



340 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

and dangerous rapid was encountered. Some idea of the 
force of the water can be gleaned from the precautions 
that were necessary. A line 250 feet long was strung out 
ahead, and the boat was swung into the stream. It wenf 
through apparently the most dangerous places without 
much difficulty. The line was loosened slowly and the 
boat held under control, but when it reached the main 
eddy it began to get contrary, and finally swung round, 
and seemed to have struck a back current. Several hours' 
work got the boat to shore, but the next one was dashed 
into a thousand pieces while crossing over some of the 
sharp-pointed rocks. 

The forty miles of the Granite Gorge are replete with 
wonders. The strangely misnamed section, the Bright 
Angel Creek, is absolutely dark, even at midday. It has 
been described as a sentinel of the great canon, and few 
people have dared attempt to pass through it. Farther 
down, the granite walls become less steep, and black 
ofranite relieves the monotonv of color. Here and there, 
at side canons and sudden bends, the vast rear view of the 
oforse, with its sandstone cliffs, is brought into view. 
These are benched back several miles from the river, with 
huge mountains here and there intervening. Above the 
dark sandstone there are flattened slopes of jellow, brown, 
red, green and white rock, rich in mineral. Through these 
the force of water for ages has cut narrow, trench-like 
waterfalls, most remarkable in appearant^e and attractive 
in their variety of coloring- 
It is difficult to imagine an upright wall a thousand feet 
high with red the predominating color, and with brighter 
hues near the summit. Benches of marble, with tufts of 
grass and bush, appear here and there, while occasionally 




R Firi de Siecie Pleasure Steacqer. 



INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 343 

there is a little tract of faultless green. Above all this, 
there is somethino- like two thousand feet of a lifrhter 
colored sandstone. This is beautified by spiral turrets and 
domes, and wherever the slope is gradual enough, pine and 
cedar trees abound in large numbers. Behind all this 
there is the background of snow on the summit of the 
mountains, and when an unexpected view can be obtained 
from the river below, there is so great a profusion of 
coloring that the eye rebels, and a feeling not unlike 
headache is produced. 

Further wonders are revealed every few thousand feet. 
At the mouth of the next creek the coloring is different. 
The strata dips visibly, and the marble, which has hitherto 
been exposed to view, is now beneath the surface. The 
sandstone forms the river boundary, and rises at a sharp 
anofle from the water's edge. The river itself is narrow in 
consequence, but the great valley is even wider at the top. 
The walls vary in height from 2,000 to 8,000 feet, and in 
rainy seasons the water rushes down the side in great 
profusion. Thousands of little rivulets join the main 
stream, and add greatly to the volume of water. Some- 
times the river will rise four or five feet in a single night, 
upsetting all calculation, and making navigation risky in 
the extreme. When, by chance, the sun is able to 
penetrate into the depths of this caiion, the kaleidoscopic 
effects are exquisite, and cause the most indifferent to 
pause and wonder. 

The discovery of an extinct volcano explains a great 
deal of the wonders of the great caiion. The' volcano is 
examined by thousands of tourists, this being one of the 
spots to reach which scientists are willing to incur count- 
less hardships and risks. No one can tell when the 

20 



344 MY XATIVE LAyi). 

volcano was active, but from the nature of the crater it is 
perfectly clear that at one time it belched forth volumes 
of lava, which had a marked effect on the formation of 
the rock and the lav of the land of the surrounding- 
country. Past the volcano, for many miles, the bright 
colors already referred to are supplanted by more sombre 
hues. Occasionally there is a little scarlet, and, as a rule, 
the sandstone is covered with the mysterious substance 
brouo-ht out of the bowels of the earth bv the now silent, 
but once magnificently awful, mountains. 

The exploring party to which we have referred, went 
through 600 miles of caiions, and found that no two miles 
were realh' alike. Finally, after three months of hard- 
ship, they emerged into an open country, and became 
almost frantic with jo3^ Never did country seem so beau- 
tiful, or verdure so attractive, and the panorama of beauty 
which was presented to their view caused them to shout 
with delight, aiad to offer up cries of thankfulness for their 
ultimate deliverance from a series of hardships and dangers 
which at one time seemed almost insurmountable. 

The reo-ion also abounds with arclnvological curiosities 
and remarkable hieroglyphics. Many of these are found 
in close proximity to the Grand Canon of the Colorado, and 
on the cliffs in which the far-famed cliff dwellers of old 
took up their abode. Hieroglyphics, marked upon rocks 
or other lasting substances, have been u^ed by nearly 
all ancient races to perpetuate the history of certain events 
among them. Especially true is this of the ancient people 
who lived in Arizona. The remarkable picture rocks and 
boulders, with strange symbols upon them, left by the 
prehistoric races of Arizona, have been ^he cause of much 
discussion amono; those Avho have seen them, as to who 



IXTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 345 

these ancient hieroglyphic makers were. These rock 
records may be divided into three different kinds, which it 
is thouofht were made by two different races. The first, 
or very ancient race, left records on rocks, in some in- 
stances of symbols only, and in other instances of pictures 
and symbols combined. The later race, which came after 
the first race had vanished, made only crude representa- 
tions of animals, birds or reptiles, not using symbols or 
combinations of lines. 

The age of the most ancient pictographs and hiero- 
glyphics can only be conjectured, but all give certain indi- 
cations that they are many centuries old, and the difference 
between the work of the ancient and the hiter race leads 
the observer to believe that the older hieroglyphics were 
made by a people far superior to those who came after 
them, and who left no record in symbols, as we have said, 
with the exception of crude representations of animals 
and reptiles. 

In many instances it is quite evident that the same rock 
or cliff has been used by the two diiferent races to put 
their markings upon, the later, or inferior, race often 
making their pictographs over or across the hieroglyphic 
writings of the first race. Of the superiority of the first 
people who left their writings on the rocks and boulders 
found in the ancient mounds, ruins and graves, there can 
be no doubt, for their writings show order and a well- 
defined design in symbols, which were evidently intended 
to convey their history to others ; and it is quite probable 
that those who made the great mounds, houses and canals 
were the authors of these writing-s. It mav be truthfullv 
asserted that the cliff dwellers of the rock houses in the 
deep canons of the mountains were of the same race as 



346 MY XATIVE LAXB. 

the mound builders of the valleys, for exactly the same 
class of hieroglyphics found on boulders from the ancient 
ruins of the valleys, are found on the rocks near the 
houses of the cliff dwellers. 

If this superior race were so distinctive from all other 
ancient races of Arizona — in their work being so far ad- 
vanced as to solve what would be called, even at the 
present day, difficult engineering problems ; to dig great 
canals many miles in length, the remains of wdiicli 
can be seen at the present time, and to bring them to 
such perfection for irrigating purposes; to build such 
great houses and to live in cities — may it not have been, 
as many who have studied this subject now contend, that 
this superior race w^ere white people instead of a copper 
colored race, as has generally been supposed? 

The hieroglyphics of the more ancient race are often 
found on sheltered rocks on the slopes of the mountains 
leading up from the valleys. Generally protected from the 
elements by overhanging cliffs, the dry climate has kept 
the writings from wearing away, and being in most in- 
stances picked into rocks which have a black, glistening 
surface, but of a lighter color underneath, the contrast is 
very noticeable, and when in prominent places these hiero- 
glyphics can be seen several hundred feet away. 

As no metal tools have ever been found in the mounds, 
ruins or cliff dwellings, the hierogljqihics were probably 
picked into the rock with a sharp-pointed stone much 
harder than the rock upon which the work was done. It 
is a singular fact that, although iron, copper, gold and 
silver abound in the mountains in Arizona, no tools, 
utensils or ornaments of these metals are found in the 
mounds or ruins. Yet furnace-like structures of ancient 



INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 347 

origin liave been found, which appear to have been used 
for reducing ores, and in and around which can be found 
great quantities of an unknown kind of slag. 

In many instances the hieroglyphic boulders have been 
found in great heaps, of several hundred in number, as if 
many different persons had contributed a piece of this 
strange writing to the collection. These etched boulders 
have been found buried in the o-round with ollas containing: 
the charred bones of human beings, and could the writino;s 
on the boulders be deciphered, we would undoubtedly learn 
of the virtues of the prehistoric deceased, just as Ave do of 
a person who dies in the present da}', when we read the 
epitaph on a tombstone of the one who is buried beneath. 

In opening some of the mounds, the investigator finds 
they are made of the fallen walls of great adobe buildings, 
and as he digs deeper he finds rooms of various dimensions, 
and which, in many instances, have cemented walls and 
floors. In one instance there were found the impressions 
of a baby's feet and hands, made, presumably, as the child 
had crawled over the newly laid soft cement. In another 
mound the cemented walls of a room were found covered 
with hieroglyphics and rude drawings, which were thought 
to represent stellar constellations. 

To a certain extent, some of the pictured rocks tell us 
of part of the daily life of this ancient race, for in a 
number of instances the pictures picked into the rocks, 
although rudeh' formed, are self-explanatory, and the 
ancient artist tells plainly by his work what is meant. 
On the edge of a little valley in the Superstition Mountains, 
there was found a great rock on which had been etched 
many small animals, apparently representing sheep, and at 
one side was the figure of a man, as if watching them. It 



348 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

may be the auciGiit herder hhnself , sitting in the shadow 
of the great rock, while his sheep were grazing in the valley 
below, has passed away the time in making this rock pic- 
tm'e. The hardy wild sheep still found in the mountains of 
Arizona may be the remnants of great bands formerly do- 
mesticated by these people. 

The skeleton of the prehistoric man dug from beneath 
the stalagmites in the cave of Mentone, France, and which 
set all the scientific men of the world talking and thinking, 
gives proof of no greater age than many of the skeletons, 
relics or bones of some of these ancient mound and canal 
builders. 

An incident illustrating the great antiquity of pre- 
historic man in Arizona, is the following : In digging a 
well on the desert north of Phoenix, at the depth of 115 feet 
from the surface a stone mortar, such as the ancients used, 
was found standing upright, and in it was found a stone 
pestle, showing the mortar had not been carried there by 
any underground current of water, and that it had not 
been disturbed from the position in which its ancient owner 
had left it with the pesllo in it. There is only one way to 
account for this mortar and pestle. They had originally 
been left on what was at that time the surface of the 
ground, and the slow wash from the mountains had 
gradually, during unknown ages, raised the surface for 
miles on every side to the extent of 115 feet. 

The question is often asked, Will this hieroglyphic 
writing ever be deciphered? The authors of the most 
ancient hieroglyphic writings or markings seem to have 
had well-defined forms or marks, which were in common 
use for this class of writing. Is it not most reasonable that 
a race so far advanced in other ways would have perfected 



INTO THE B WEL 8 OF THE EAR TH. 349 

a method of transmitting by marks of some kind their 
records to those who might come after them? Again, 
where so much system is shown in the use of symbols, it 
may be presumed that the same mark, wherever used in 
the same position, carries with it a fixed meaning, ahke at 
all times. Having such a settled system of marks, there 
must be a key to the thoughts concealed in writing, and 
quite likely the key for deciphering these hierogljq^hics 
Avill sometime be found on one of the yet undiscovered 
hieroglyphic rocks in the high mountains or in the mounds 
not yet examined. On the other hand, there can be no 
key to the inferior class of pictographs made by the people 
who came after the mound, canal and city builders had dis- 
appeared, for the crudely marked forms of reptiles, animals 
or similar things had a meaning, if any, varying with each 
individual maker. 

"Who were these people who formed a great nation here 
in the obscurity of the remote past? Were they the 
ancient Phoenicians, who were not only a maritime but a 
colonizing nation, and who, in their well-manned ships, 
might have found their way to the southern coast of 
America ages since, and from thence journeyed north ? Or 
were they some of the followers of Votan or Zamna, who 
had Avaudered north and founded a colony of the Aztecs? 
Whoever these people were, and whichever way they came 
from, the evidences of the great works they left behind 
them give ample proof that they were superior and dif- 
ferent from other races around them, and these particular 
people may have been the "bearded white men," whom 
the Indians had traditions of when Coronado's followers 
first came through the Gila and Salt River vallevs in 1526. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

OUR GREAT WATERWAYS 

Importar\ce of Rivers to Commerce a Generation Ago — The Ideal River 
Man — The Great Mississippi River and Its Importance to Our 
Native Land — The Treacherous Missouri — A First Mate Who 
Found a Cook's Disguise Yery Convenient — How a Second Mate 
Got Over the Inconvenience of Temporary Financial Embarrassment. 

Xl^URING the last quarter of the century in which 
'*■" we write the figures "1" and "8" in every date 
line, the steam railroad has, to a very large extent, put out 
of joint the nose of the steamboat, just as, at the present 
time, we are threatened with so complete a revolution in 
travel and motive power as to warrant a prediction that, 
long before another quarter of a century has passed, elec- 
tricity will take the place of steam almost entirely. But 
even if this is so, old acquaintance should not be forgot, 
and every citizen of the United States should feel that the 
prosperity of the country is due, in very large measure, to 
the country's magnificent waterways, and to the enter- 
prise of the men who equipped river fleets and operated 
them, with varying degrees of profit. 

The true river man is not so conspicuous as he was in 
the days when St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis and other 
important railroad centers of to-day were exclusively river 
towns. The river man was a king in those days. The 
captain walked the streets with as much dignity as he 
walked his own deck, and he was pointed to by landsmen 
as a person of dignity and repute. The mate was a great 

(350) 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 351 

man in the estimation of all who knew him, and of a good 
many who did not know him. Ruling his crew with a rod 
of iron, and accustomed to be obeyed with considerable 
and commendable promptness, he adopted a tone of voice 
in general conversation considerably louder than the aver- 
age, and every one acquired a habit of making way for him. 

The levee in a river town, before the railroads came 
snorting and puffing across country and interfering with 
the monopoly so loug enjoyed by the steamboat, was a 
scene of continuous turmoil and activity. Sometimes, 
now% one sees on a levee a great deal of hurrying and 
noise. But the busiest scenes of to-day sink into insignifi- 
cance compared with those which are rapidly becoming 
little more than an indistinct memor3^ The immense 
cargoes of freight of every description would be ranged 
along the river front, and little flags could be seen in 
every direction. 

These flags were not, perhaps, exactly evidence of the 
activity of the schoolmaster, or of the prevalence of 
superior education. They were, rather, reminders of the 
fact that a great majority of the rank and file of river 
workers could read little, and write less. To tell a colored 
roustabout twenty or thirty years ago to fetch a certain 
cargo, labeled with the name of a particular boat or con- 
signee, would have been to draw^ from the individual 
addressed a genuine old-time plantation grin, with some 
caustic observation about lack of school facilities in the 
days when the roustabout ought to have been studying the 
"three Rs," but was not. It was, however, comparatively 
easy to locate a cargo by means of a flag, and identification 
seldom failed, as the flags could be varied in color, shape 
and size, so as to provide distinction as well as difference. 



352 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

Those who remember the busy levee scene, with the 
flag adornment referred to, will agree that there was some- 
thing picturesque as Avell as noisy about the old river days, 
and will be inclined to regret, and almost deplore, the fact 
that tilings are not, from a river man's standpoint, what 
they were. 

In no country in the world has railroad building been 
carried on with so much enterprise as in our native land. 
Prior to the enormous expenditure on track building and 
railroad equipment, advantage had to be taken of the 
extraordinary opportunities for navigation and transporta- 
tion afforded by the great waterways of the country. As 
railroads were naturally built in the East before the West, 
the value of our Middle and Western waterways is natur- 
ally best understood by the average reader, because they 
continued to play an indispensable part in the transaction 
of business of every character until quite a recent period. 

The Eastern rivers are less magnificent in extent and 
volume than those of the West, though many of them are 
picturesque and attractive in the extreme. The Hudson 
has often been spoken of as the "Thames of America," 
not because there is any resemblance between the length of 
the two rivers upon which are situated the two greatest 
cities of modern times. The simile is the result rather of 
the immense number of costly family residences and 
summer resorts built along the banks of both rivers. 

In another chapter we say something of a trip down 
the picturesque Hudson, whose banks are lined with 
historic landmarks and points of pressing interest. We 
give an illustration of a pleasure boat on the Hudson, 
which reminds one of many delightful river trips taken at 
various periods, and also of the events of national import- 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 353 

ance which centered arouud the river that is crowded, year 
after year, with pleasure-seekers from the overcrowded 
metropolis at its mouth. 

The Mississippi River is the hirgest and grandest in 
North America. A few miles above St. Louis it is joined 
by the Missouri River, and if the distance from the source 
of the latter to the Gulf of Mexico be calculated, the 
lonofest river in the world is found. At a considerable dis- 
tance from the source of the Father of "Waters are the Falls 
of St. Anthony, discovered more than two hundred years 
ago by enterprising pioneers, who thought they had discov- 
ered the headwaters of the great river. The scenery of 
the river at the falls and bej^ond them is very attractive, 
and in many cases so beautiful as to be beyond verbal 
description. In many other parts of the river the scenery 
is grand, though occasionally there are long stretches of 
flat country which are inclined to become monotonous and 
barren of poetic thought. 

Of the entire river, Mr. L. U. Reavis writes enthusias- 
tically ; 

" The more we consider the subject," says this 
author, "the more we are compelled to admit that the 
Mississippi is a wonderful river, and that no man can com- 
pute its importance to the American people. What the 
Nile is to Egypt, what the great Euphrates was to ancient 
Assyria, what the Danube is to Europe, what the Ganges is 
to India, what the Amazon is to Brazil — all this, and even 
more than this, the Mississippi River is to the North 
American Continent. In an earlier age men would have 
worshiped the jVlississippi, but in this age we can do 
better, we can improve it. To this all our efforts should 
be directed, and we should continuallv l)ear in mind that 



354 MY NATIVE LAND. 

no other improvement, ancient or modern, relating to the 
interests of commerce has ever commanded the attention 
of men equal in importance to that of the Mississippi 
Hiver, so as to control its waters and afford ample and free 
navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico." 

During the last few years, the agitation in favor of 
river improvement has assumed very definite shape, and 
from time to time large appropriations have been made by 
Congress for the purpose of keeping the river navigable at 
all periods of the year. As long ago as 1873, the Chair- 
man of the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes 
censured the Government for neglecting to thoroughly 
improve the big rivers. A quarter of a century has nearly 
elapsed since then, and, in the opinion of many competent 
river men, there is still room for much improvement, not 
only in the river, but in the method of arrangements for 
designing and carrying out the improvements. 

The Missouri River, the great tributary to the Missis- 
sippi, has often been described as one of the most treach- 
erous and aff^ressive rivers in the universe. It seems to 
be actuated by a spirit of unrest and a desire for change, 
so much so that the center of the river bed frequently 
moves to the right or left so rapidly as to wipe out of 
existence prosperous farms and homes. Sometimes this 
erratic procedure threatens the very existence of cities and 
bridges, and tens of thousands of dollars have been spent 
from time to time in day and night work to check the 
aofgression of the stream and to compel it to conline itself 
to its proper limits. 

The Mississippi proper brings down from the lakes to 
its junction with the Missouri River clear water, in which 
the reflection is so vivid, that the verdure on the banks 



OUn GREAT WATERWAYS. 355 

gives it quite a green appearance. The Missouri, on the 
other hand, is muddy and turbulent, bringing with it even 
at low water a large quantity of sand and sediment. At 
high water it brings with it trees and anything else that 
happens to come within its reach, but at all periods of the 
year its water is more or less muddy. At the junction of 
the two rivers the difference in color of the w^ater is very 
apparent, and, strange to say, there is not a complete 
intermingling until several miles have been covered by the 
current. Under ordinary conditions, the western portion 
of the current is very much darker in shade than the 
eastern, even twenty miles from what is generally spoken 
of as the mouth of the Missouri. 

The Muddy Missouri rises in the Rocky Mountains. It 
is really formed by the junction of three rivers — the Jef- 
ferson, the Gallatin and the Madison. By a strange 
incongruity, the headwaters of the Missouri are within a 
mile of those of the Columbia, althougli the two rivers run 
in opposite directions, the Columbia entering the Pacific 
Ocean and the Missouri finding an inlet to the Gulf of 
Mexico via the Mississippi. At a distance of 4-1:1 miles 
from the extreme point of the navigation of the head 
branches of the Missouri, are what are denominated as the 
"Gates of the Rocky Mountains," which present an 
exceedingly grand and picturesque appearance. For a 
distance of about six miles the rocks rise perpendicularly 
from the margin of the river to the height of 1,200 feet. 
The river itself is compressed to the breadth of 150 yards, 
and for the first three miles there is but one spot, and that 
only of a few yards, on which a man can stand between 
the water and the perpendicular ascent of the mountain. 

At a distance of 110 miles below this point, and 551 



35G MY NATIVE LAND. 

miles from the source, are the "Great Falls," nearly 
2,000 miles from the egress of the Missouri into the Mis- 
sissippi Eiver. At this place the river descends by a 
succession of rapids, and falls a distance of 351 feet in 
sixteen and one-half miles. The lower and greater fall 
has a perpendicular pitch of 98 feet, the second of 19, the 
third of 47 and the fourth of 26 feet. Between and below 
these falls there are continuous rapids of from 3 to 18 
feet descent. The falls, next to those of Niagara, are the 
grandest on the continent. 

Below the "Great Falls" there is no substantial ob- 
struction to navigation, except that during the midsummer 
and fall months, after the July rise, there is frequently 
insufficient water for steamboating. This results from the 
fact that, although the Missouri Eiver drains a large area 
of country and receives many tributaries, some of which 
are navigable for many hundreds of miles, it passes for a 
great portion of its course through a dry and open country, 
where the process of evaporation is very rapid. The 
channel is rendered intricate b}^ the great number of 
islands and sandbars, and in mau}^ cases it is made excep- 
tionally hazardous by reason of countless snags. 

Volumes have been written concerning the adventures 
of pioneers and gold hunters, who went up the Missouri in 
advance of railroads and even civilization, in order to trade 
with the Indians or to search for yellow metal in the great 
hills in the unexplored country, where so much in the way 
of easily acquired wealth is looked for. Some of the 
wealthiest men in the West to-day have a vivid recollec- 
tion of the dangers they encountered on the voyage up 
this river, and. of the enemies the}- had to either meet or 
avoid. Sometimes hostile Indians would attack a boat 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 357 

amid-stream from both sides of the river, and when an at- 
tempt was made to bring gold or costly merchandise down 
the river, daring attacks were often made by white robbers, 
whose ferocity and murderous designs were quite as con- 
spicuous as those of the aboriginal tribes. Many a murder 
was committed, and the seeds were sown for countless 
mysteries and unexplained disappearances. 

The Ohio Kiver is another of the great tributaries of 
the Mississippi. In years gone by the importance of this 
waterway was enormous. The Mississippi itself runs 
through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, 
Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. 
The Ohio taps and drains a much older country than many 
of these States, and hence its importance in the days when 
Cincinnati was the great gateway of the West and a man- 
ufacturing city of first importance. 

The Ohio is a great- river for more than a thousand 
miles, and connects Pittsburg with Cairo, running through 
such important towns as Louisville and Cincinnati. On 
this river some of the most interesting events in river 
history have been enacted in the past. Many a tragedy 
and many a comedy are included in its annals, and even 
to-day, although paralleled, crossed and recrossed by rail- 
roads, it is a most important highway of commerce. 

The Tennessee River is a tributary of the Ohio, which 
it enters so near the Mississippi as to have a very close 
connection with that great river. Entering the Ohio at 
Paducah, Kentucky, the Tennessee is one of the largest 
and most important rivers east of the Mississippi. It is 
formed by the union of two rivers which rise in the 
Allegheny Mountains and unite at Kingston, Tennessee. 
The river then runs southwest through Alabama, and turn- 



358 MY XATIVE LAJSfD. 

ing northward, passes through portions of Tennessee and 
Kentucky. In length the Tennessee exceeds 1,200 miles, 
and, with the exception of very dangerous places here and 
there, it is strictly a navigable river. 

Running as it does, through a country not yet 
thoroughly supplied with railroad accommodation, the 
Tennessee forms an important connection between a num- 
ber of small shipping points, which would otherwise be 
cut off from commercial intercourse with large centers. 
Hence the transportation facilities are good, and in many 
respects remind one of old days when river traffic was 
general. Boats run almost all the year around up this 
river as far as Alabama points, and not only is a large and 
lucrative freight business transacted, but pleasure and 
health-seekers are also carried in large numbers. 

Everything was not prosaic in river life in the old days. 
All of us have heard of the great races on the Mississippi 
River between masrnificent steamers, and of the excitement 
on deck as first one and then the other gained a slight 
advantage. Stories, more or less reliable, have been told 
again and again of the immense sums of money made and 
lost by speculators who backed their own boats against all 
comers. Tricks and jokes also prevailed and continue up 
to the present time. The passenger on a Tennessee River 
boat is almost sure to be told how a very popular first 
mate escaped arrest by disguising himself as a cook. The 
story is amusing enough to bear repetition, and bereft of 
corroborative detail, evidently designed to lend artistic 
verisimilitude to the narrative, it is as follows : 

The boat was detained at a landing at a small Kentucky 
town where the laws against gambling were supposed to be 
very strict. Some of the oflScers of the boat were 




^^mss^sa 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 36 1 

determined to kill time by staking a few dollars at poker, 
faro or something worse, and inquiries were made in eon- 
sequence as to where a game could be found. These re- 
sulted satisfactorily from the gamblers' standpoint, and the 
crowd took themselves to the appointed spot, taking with 
them the very stout, good-natured, but not very speculative 
first mate. The game was played in a small room at the rear 
of an almost equally small restaurant. Everything went 
well for awhile, and those who were winning thought they 
had everything the heart could possibly desire. All at 
once one of the colored help came rushing in with a notifi- 
cation that the place was being raided. 

It was a case of every man for himself. As is usual in 
cases of this kind, one or two got under the table, where of 
course they were promptly found and arrested. Two others 
jumped out of the window, into the arms of two deputies, 
who were standing there to receive them. The mate, 
caught for the first time in his life in a gambling resort, 
thought of a very good plan of escape. Snatching up his 
hat and coat he walked into the kitchen, where he found a 
good-natured colored lady hard at work stirring batter in 
anticipation of some table luxury for a coming meal. 
"With admirable presence of mind the mate picked up an 
apron, tied it around him and telling "mammj^" to take a 
few minutes' rest as she was evidently overtired, he seized 
her Avooden spoon and went on stirring the batter as 
though he had never done anything else in his life. 

In the meantime ever}' other member of the party had 
been caught and taken to the little frame building which 
answered the purpose of jail and police-court combined. 
Various conjectures were exchanged as to the fate of the 
mate, whose ignorance of the events incidental to gambling 

21 



3G2 MY ^'ATIVF LAXB, 

raids' was expected to prove very inconvenient to him in a 
variety of ways. All anxiety on this score was, however, 
thrown awav. The old man acted his part so Avell that 
Avhen the raiders saw him laboriously at work with the 
wooden spoon they concluded that he was a member of the 
establishment. In consequence of this they let him alone, 
and when the raid was over he replaced his hat and coat, 
wnth the indifference and nonchalance of an experienced 
actor, and went quietly back to the boat. 

Here he informed friends of the incarcerated individuals 
of the fix they were in, and advised them to go to their re- 
lease, preferring himself to keep as far as possible from 
the representatives of the law. Liberty was obtained by 
the payment of considerable sums in the way of fines and 
costs, and although the event took place some years ago, 
the way in which the inexperienced gambler escaped, while 
his more hardened and experiencol' friends were caught, is 
still a constant source of merriment among oflicers and 
passengers. 

It was while enjoying a delightful and distinctly sensa- 
tional trip on the Columbia Eiver that the passengers were 
enlightened as to a comparatively old trick, which was 
executed with the utmoet promptness and despatch by a 
young second mate. This young man was never known to 
have any money. Generous in the extreme, and heartily 
full of fun, he managed to get rid of his salary as promptly 
as it was paid him, and his impecuniosity was a standing 
joke among members of the crew and regular passengers. 
On one occasion the boat met with an accident, and was 
tied up at a small town for four or five days. The hero of 
the story, with a number of other light-hearted individuals, 
naturally went ashore on pleasure bent. They had what is 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 3G3 

generally called a good time, but what little funds they had 
when they started were soon exhausted. 

Two or three councils of war were held as to how a sup- 
ply of liquid refreshments, of a character not included in the 
temperance man's bill of fare, could be obtained. Finally, 
the second mate undertook to secure the needful without 
the expenditure of omj money. He borrowed a heavy over- 
coat belonging to one of the party, and then hunted up two 
larsre wine bottles. One of these he filled with water and 
securely corked. The other he took empty, and with these 
in his pockets entered the saloon. Producing the empty 
bottle he asked the bar-keeper how much he would charge 
for filling it, and on hearing the ''amount told him to go 
ahead. 

As soon as the bottle was filled and returned to the 
second mate, he slipped it in his pocket, and in a very 
matter-of-fact manner began to make arrangments for the 
liquidation of the debt, at a convenient period. The saloon- 
man naturally resented any discussion of this character, 
and told his customer to either pay for the liquor or return 
it right away. Assuming an air of injured innocence, our 
friend took out the bottle of water, handed it to the bar- 
keeper and eaid he "guessed he'd have to take it back." 
The unsuspecting purveyor of liquor that both cheers and 
inebriates, grumbled considerably, emptied the bottle of 
water into the demijohn of whisky, handed back the bottle 
to the apparently disconsolate seeker after credit, and told 
him to "get out." 

Naturally, no second order was necessary. Five min- 
utes later, the entire party could have. been seen sharing 
the contents of the bottle which had not been emyt^d, 
but which they lost no time in emptying. The trick 



3G4 31 Y NATIVE LAXD. 

answered its purpose admirably. When, about two weeks 
later, the man who had played it was again in the town, he 
called at the saloon to pay for the whisky. He was 
treated very kindly, but hints were freely given as to the 
necessity of a keeper accompanj'ing him on his travels. 
In other words, the bar-keeper declined distinctly to be- 
lieve that he had been hoodwinked as stated. This feature 
of the joke was, in the opinion of its perpetrators, the 
most amusing feature of all, and it need hardly be said 
that very little effort was made to disabuse the unbelieving 
but somewhat over-credulous bar-keeper. 

The Columbia River is one of the most interesting and 
remarkable on the continent. Rising, as it does, quite 
near the source of the Missouri River, it runs, by a very 
circuitous route, to the Pacific Ocean, being in places 
very narrow, and in others abnormally wide. The Dalles 
of the Columbia are known the world over. They are 
situated some sixty or seventy miles Avest of the citj'' of 
Portland, and are within easy distance of the American 
Mount Blanc. They extend from Dalles Station, a small 
town on the Union Pacific Railroad, to Celilo, another 
station about fifteen miles farther east. Between these 
two points the bed of the Columbia is greatly reduced in 
width, and its boundaries are two huge walls of rock, 
which rise almost perpendicularly from the water level. 
The width of the chasm, through which the water rushes 
wildly, varies considerably, but at no point in the western 
section does it exceed 130 feet, although on either side of 
the Dalles the width of the river itself ranged from about 
2,000 to much more than 2,500 feet. 

As the volume of water is enormous at this point, 
especially after rain and much melting of snow, there is 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 3G5 

often a rise of fifty feet in a few hours in the narrow 
channel of the Dalles. Sometimes the rise exceeds seventy 
feet, and an effect most extraordinary in character results. 
From many points along the river l^anks, Mount Hood can 
be seen towering away up into the clouds. The bluffs 
themselves are marvels of formation, very difficult to 
explain or account for. When the water is low, there is 
an exposure of almost vertical cliffs. The bluffs vary in 
height to a remarkable extent, and the lower the water, 
the more grotesque the appearance of the figures along 
them. When the water is very low, there is a cascade, or 
■waterfall, every few feet, presenting an appearance of 
continuous uproar and froth, very attractive to the sight- 
seer, but very objectionable from the standpoint of navi- 
gation. 

When the water is high, these cascades are lost sight 
of, and the rocks which form them are covered with one 
rao-inof torrent, which seems inclined to dash evervthino; 
to one side in its headlong course towards the Pacific 
Ocean. Logging is a most important use to which the 
Columbia Eivcr is put, and when immense masses of 
timber come thundering down the Dalles, at a speed some- 
times as great as fifty miles an hour, all preconceived 
notions of order and safety are set at naught. There is 
one timber shoot, more than 3,000 feet long, down which 
the logs rush so rapidly that scarcely twenty seconds is 
occupied in the entire trip. The Dalles generally may be 
described as a marvelous trough, and the name is a French 
word, w^hich well signifies this feature. 

Farther down the river, and near the city of Portland, 
there are some very delightful falls, not exceptionally 
large or high, but very delightful in character, and full of 



306 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

contradictions and peculiarities. Steamboating on the 
Columbia River, in its. navigable sections, is exceedingly 
pleasant and instructive. The river is the largest in 
America which empties into the Pacific Ocean. For more 
than 140 miles it is navigable by steamers of the largest 
kind, while other vessels can get up very much higher, and 
nearer the picturesque source. On some sections of it, 
glaciers of great magnitude can be seen, and there are 
also many points concerning which legend and tradition 
have been very busy. According to one of these tradi- 
tions, the Indians who formerly lived on the banks of the 
river were as brave as the ancient Spartans and Greeks, 
though if this is approximately correct, the law and argu- 
ment of descent must be entirely erroneous, for the Indians 
of this section to-day rank among the meanest and most 
objectionable of the entire country. 

An artistic illustration is given of the "whaleback" 
steamer, used principally on our Northern lakes. The 
whaleback varies from a somewhat clumsy looking craft, 
resembling in appearance very much the back of a whale, 
to the much more attractive and navigable craft shown in 
the illustration. These whalebacks have a very important 
part to play in internal navigation. It seems able to with- 
stand, readily, bad weather and rough water. Unlike most 
vessels which are safe under these conditions, it requires 
very little water to be safely navigated, and it can carry 
heavy loads in six or eight feet of water. 

The revival of the steamboat trade on our great rivers, 
and the recovering from the railroads of at least a portion 
of the trade stolen away, is a pet hobby among river men 
generally, and especially among those whose parents taught 
them from the cradle up the true importance of the mag- 



OUR GREAT WATERWAYS, 367 

nificent internal waterways bountifully provided for our 
native land by an all-wise Providence. It is seriously" 
proposed to attempt this revival by aid of whalcback 
steamers, and if the project is carried out, the success 
which will attend the effort is likely to agreeably surprise 
even the most enthusiastic among those who are now ad- 
vocatins: it. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THROUGH THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 

The Importance of Some of our Newest States — Romantic History of 
Montana — The Bad Lands and their Exact Opposite — Civilization 
Away Up in the Mountains — Indians who have Never Quarreled 
■with White Men — Traditions Concerning Mount Tacoma — Won- 
derful Towns of the Extreme Northwest — A State Shaped like a 
Large Chair — The Falls of Shoshone. 

T V 11 ITHIN the last few years new States liave been 
^■'^■'^ admitted into the Union which, in themselves, 
form a magnificent empire. "We allude to the great 
Northwestern Territories which have become States within 
the last decade, and which have added so much luster to 
the escutcheon of our native land. The utmost ignorance 
prevails as to these States, and as to the northwestern 
corner of the United States proper, a term generally 
applied to this great Republic, with the exception of 
Alaska. 

Every now and again the report comes of a great forest 
fire in the Northwest, and occasionally the world is horrified 
by reports of a terrible calamity of this character, involv- 
ing great loss of life and property. Owing to this fact 
there is a tendency to look on the northwestern tier of 
States as one huge forest, ever offering a temptation to 
that terrible destructive agenc}- — fire. People who profess 
to have made tours through the country, add to the com- 
plication by enlarging on this one characteristic, and omit- 
ting all reference to the other features, in which the great 
Northwest towers head and shoulders above competitors, 

(368) 



THE GREAT XORTIIWEST. 3G9 

and teaches the entire world a lesson in productiveness, 
fertility, and, we may add, industry. 

The World's Fair served to very largely disabuse the 
public mind concerning what is destined to become one of 
the wealthiest sections of the United States. The elegant 
State buildings that were erected on the shores of Lake 
Michigan, and the gorgeous displays of fruits, grain, ore, 
and di:fferent products, must have convinced the averasfe 
visitor that there was a great deal more in the far "West 
and Northwest than he had dreamt of. Many were induced 
in consequence of the information they received, to blend 
their fortunes with the young States, and although the 
financial condition of the country has not been calculated 
to expedite the fulfillment of their Aladdin-like hopes, 
most of them have done well enough to be able to con- 
gratulate themselves on the change in the location and 
occupation. 

We can only speak of some of the most remarkable 
features of this great section, greater, indeed, than several 
Old World nations combined. Helena is the capital of one 
of these new States, to which is given the euphonic name 
of Montana. The name is very appropriate, as it signifies 
"belonging to the mountains." The Indians had a very 
similar name for the territory now included in the State, 
and Judge Eddy called it the "Bonanza State' ' because of its 
mining sensations, a name which has clung to it with nuich 
fidelity ever since. The arms of the State are significant 
and almost allegorical. The present is linked with the 
past by means of a retreating buffalo, significant of the 
extermination of this interesting and valuable species. 
The great mining resources of jNIoutana are shown bv a 
miner's pick and shovel, and in the rearground the sun is 



370 MY NATIVE LAND. 

setting behiDci eminences of the Rocky Mountains. 
Montana was first discovered by Canadians, some two 
hundred years ago. The first permanent settlement was 
early in the present century, and, until within the last fifty 
years, all goods and utensils used in it were dragged up 
the Missouri Eiver from St. Louis, a distance of nearly 
2,000 miles. When the war broke out, the Territory was 
occupied almost entirely by Indians, with a few daring fur 
traders and a number of missionaries, who, in exercise of 
their duty, had no fear at all. The discovery of gold 
which took place almost simultaneously with the firing of 
the first shot in the conflict between the North and the 
South, brought thousands of adventurers from all parts of 
the Union and introduced millions of capital. Some of the 
mines turned out phenomenally successful, and although 
there were the usual heart-burnings on account of failures, 
the average of success was very great. The State's gold 
mines have 3'ielded fabulous sums, and, more recently steps 
have been taken to extract from the quartz and rock a full 
measure of wealth that is to be found there. 

Montana is a Northwestern State in fact as well as 
name. It is situated on the high plateau between the 
Continental Divide and the Bitter Eoot Range. Fully one- 
fifth of its area lies beyond the Rocky Mountains, and its 
northern boundary is the snow-covered region of Canada 
and British Columbia. The eastern portion of the State, 
bordering upon the Dakotas, is for the most part prairie 
land, rising rapidly in the direction of the west, and form- 
ing the approach to the mighty Rockies. The western 
portion, bordering upon Idaho, is much more movmtainous 
in character. Some 50,000 square miles of hilly country 
are to be seen here, many of the peaks rising to heights 



THE GREAT XORTHWEST. 371 

exceeding 10,000 feet. The State alone is larger in area 
than the entire British Islands, and it is infinitely larger 
than the whole of New England. That it is a country of 
magnificent distances, is shown from the fact that the 
northern frontier equals in length the distance between 
the great seat of learnino- and culture in Massachusetts and 
the capital city of the short-lived Confederacy. 

Although most of Montana is rich in either agriculture 
or mineral, a considerable area is occupied by the notorious 
Bad Lands. General Sully described these lands very accu- 
rately, or at least aptly, when he said that they reminded 
him of "the other place with the fires out." So many 
descriptions of the Bad Lands have been given, that we 
need scarcely refer to them at great length. The clay, 
rock and peculiar dust which lies all around this territory 
becomes, on the slightest provocation, the nastiest kind of 
quicksand. Nothing can thrive or prosper in the Bad 
Lands which, however, are full of evidences of prehistoric 
life and which, perhaps, at one time were the scenes of 
activity and even prosperity. 

In exact contrast to the Bad Lands is the Gallatin 
Valley, about four hundred square miles in extent. It is 
stated to be one of the most fertile spots in the world, and 
by common consent it has been called the Egypt of 
Montana. A portion of it has been cultivated, and its 
yield per acre has been found to be prodigious. At no 
great distance from this fertile spot, two of America's most 
remarkable rivers have their rise. The greatest of these is 
the Missouri, which, measured from its source to final en- 
trance into the Gulf of Mexico along the bed of the Missis- 
sippi River, is really the longest river in the world. Away 
up here in the mountains, the Missouri, which subsequently 



372 MY NATIVE LAAW. 

becomes one of the most treacherous and destructive rivers 
in the universe, runs through picturesque caiions and over 
great gorges of rock, finally leaving the State a great river, 
though still insignificant in comparison with the volume it 
is to assume, and the drainage work it is to accomplish 
farther away from the mighty hills among which it had its 
source. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad runs through this won- 
derful State, with so great a future before it. Helena, the 
capital city of Montana, was originally a mining camp, and 
early prophecies were that it would not outlive the mining 
enthusiasm. These prophecies, however, have proved en- 
tirely mistaken. It is no longer a mere mining town, with 
rough, busy, uncultured men rushing hither and thither in 
the eager pursuit of their daily avocation. It is now not 
only the judicial capital of Montana, but it is also the 
irreat center of educational advance. It has a number of 
very handsome i)ublic buildings, and is the home of many 
men, who, having made their fortunes in the mines of the 
new Northwest, have been so impressed with the beauties 
of scener}^ and climate, that they have decided to abide 
where at first they merely intended to sojourn. Helena 
is more than 4,000 feet above the sea level, and its 20,000 
inhabitants are reputed to be worth more than $100,- 
000,000. The apostle of sociahsm or communism who 
suggested an equal division among the 60,000,000 of our 
people of all the wealth of the nation, would find little en- 
couragement in this great mountain city, where poverty, 
if not unknown, is very scarce. 

Much more typical as a mining city is Butte. This is 
situated upon a hill quite peculiarly located, and is reached 
by a ride along the Silver Bow Valley. Close hero is the 



THE GREA T XOR TIIWES T. 373 

wonderful Anaconda mine. The mines in the neighbor- 
hood have a reputation for immense yield, the annual ex- 
tracts of gold, silver and copper being valued at more than 
133,000,000. The Anaconda smelter, built some twelve 
years ago, is said to be the largest in the world, and the 
town itself seems to literally talk mining by its streets, its 
houses, its business, its habits and its people. 

Missoula is the third largest city of Montana. Its site 
is a splendid one for a city. The Hell Gate Canon and 
Eiver merge into a magnificent plain, the foot of the noted 
Bitter Koot Valley. The Hell Gate River breaks out from 
the canon and mountains into the wide plain and sweeps 
majestically across the extreme northern limit of it, 
huo-o-ino- closely the Mission Eange to the north. At the 
western side of the valley the Bitter Root River combines 
with the Hell Gate, and together, and now under the name 
of the Missoula River, they flow westward between high 
mountains. The northern end of the valley is perhaps six 
miles or more wide. The great opening in the mountain is 
rather triangular in shape, with the apex of the triangle 
many miles up the valley to the south. Here is a city laid 
out and built up in perfect harmony with its location, as is 
evidenced by the tasteful manner in which the place is 
planned and the character of its business blocks and resi- 
dences. Telephones, electric lights, and water supply are 
found even in the remote suburbs of Missoula. 

The mountains literally hem them in. Immediately to 
the northeast is a bare hill that is starthng in its re- 
semblance to an animal. It is like a huge, recumbent 
elephant, the hind quarters of which form the northern 
end of Hell Gate Canon, around which the railroad curves 
as it issues from the canon. The "Mammoth Jumbo," as it 



374 J/r XATIVE LAND. 

is appropriiitch' known, reclines Avitli head to the north 
and trunk stretched out behind him. One eye is phiinly 
seen, and one huge shoulder is visible. Down in the 
south, sharp, decisive, with a steep, rocky escarpment 
facing us, and a long ridge descending from it, is Lolo 
Peak, of the Bitter Eoot Eange, a noted landmark. This 
overhangs Lolo Pass, through which Chief Joseph came in 
his famous retreat from General IIoAvard in 1877, which 
terminated in the battle of the Bear Paw Mountains, 
October 5th, where the brave and able chieftain was cap- 
tured Avith the rest of his tribe, when almost within reach 
of freedom just across the Canadian border. 

At the southern extremity of the valley on the banks of 
the Bitter Root River, and with the rans^e servinsr as an 
effective background, is Fort Missoula, a pleasantly located 
military post. Sevei-al interpretations of the meaning of 
the word "Missoula" are given. Father Guidi, a priest of 
long residence in the country, gave me what he considers 
the true one, which also indicates the manner in which the 
Hell Gate Canon and River were christened. The spot 
where Missoula is located was once the scene of conflict 
between the various tribes of Indians. The "Flatheads" 
and "Blackfeet" were deadly enemies, and, presumabl}^ 
may have fought over this lovely spot. At any rate, the 
ground just at the mouth of the Hell Gate Cano-n was 
covered long ago with skulls and human bones. 

These Flathead Indians are noted for the fact that they 
have never adopted a hostile attitude towards white people. 
They are advanced in civilization, as readers of Chapter 
IX and its accompanying illustration will have noted. 
Tradition states that their religion demands that the head 
of every infant must be flattened by means of a board be- 



THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 375 

fore the bones harden sufficiently to assume a shape. How- 
ever this may be, none of the surviving members of the 
tribe have particular!}^ flat heads, and all deny emphatically 
the statement that nature is evqr interfered with in the 
manner stated. These Indians call themselves "Selish," a 
name apparently without reason or derivation. The Flat- 
head Eeservation was formed about forty years ago. On 
three sides it is walled in by high mountains, and it con- 
sists of about 2,240 square miles of territory. The railway 
station, Arlee, is so named after the last war chief of the 
Flatheads. Passengers are often amused by the gaudily 
decked Indians who are seen at this station, which is quite 
near the reservation. 

An interesting story attaches to the Jocko River and 
Eeservation. It is stated that an Irishman named Jacob 
Finley established a ranch on the river early in the present 
century. The French Canadians who settled in the neigh- 
borhood and intermarried with the Indians, called Finley 
by his Christian name with a peculiar French pronunciation, 
which made it sound Yevj like much Jaco or Jocko — the 
latter name gradually becoming generally adopted. It was 
quite natural to cull the river and the valley after the ranch 
owner, and the name finally became generally accepted as 
correct. This man Finle^^ left behind him a family of 
seventeen, and before he had been dead many years his 
direct descendant)* numbered within three or four of an 
even century. 

The Indians called the stream the Xlka, an unpro- 
nounceable combination of letters, resulting from a most 
interesting though variously described event. 

Mrs. Ronan, the well-known writer, tells an interesting 
story of how names are given l)y Indians. Thus, her own 



376 3IY JSFATIVE LAXD. 

daughter's name was Isabel, but the Indians called her 
"Sunshine." In February, 1887, the little girl was born. 
For some days prior to her birth the weather had been 
gloomy in the extreme. Almost simultaneously with the 
child's birth the sun, so long hidden under the clouds, 
burst forth to gladden the heart of man. With one 
accord, the Indians declared that the little one had brought 
sunshine with her, and hence the name, which, as subse- 
quent events have proved, was exceptionally appropriate. 
Accompanying this chapter is an illustration of INIount 
Tacoma. This mountain is one of the most attractive, as 
well as lofty, in the Northwest. As can easily be supposed, 
traditions without number are connected with it. No 
greater mistake can be made than to imagine that the In- 
dians who are found in this region are naturally atheistic, 
as well as ignorant. To the student of religion there is 
rather an inherent belief in the Supreme Being among 
these people, with very strong proofs of the truth of the 
divine revelation. One of the traditions, told with much 
fervor and earnestness about Tacoma, involves in it a 
Savior of mankind. With great reverence and awe the 
good listener among the band of tourists is told that at one 
period — legends are seldom very specific in the matter of 
time or space — a Savior arrived in a copper canoe, his 
mission being to save the Sivvash Indians, who were spoken 
of as the chosen people of the Great Unseen. That some 
prophet or missionary certainly came to this region and 
preached appears to be evident from the very definite sur- 
vival of the doctrines taught by him. His creed seems to 
have been a very apt blending of all that is best in the 
teachings of Buddha, with many of the precepts of the 
"Sermon on the Mount" added. 



THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 379 

Love to mankind, the evil of revenge, and the glories 
of forgiveness form the principal featm-es of the doctrine. 
The legend, or tradition, goes on to say that so violent 
was the opposition to this crusader, who attacked local 
institutions so bitterly, that tinally he was seized and nailed 
to a tree. This act of crucifixion resulted from a final 
sermon, in which the wanton destruction of human beinirs 
was denounced in terms of great vehemence. As nine, 
instead of seven or three, is the general number talked of 
in this section, it is not surprising that the story should go 
on to state that after nine days the "Mysterious One" was 
reanimated, and once more commenced his work of refor- 
mation and tuition. 

Nothing in connection with the story can be objected 
to. By some it is supposed to be the result of casual im- 
migration from the regions of Palestine, to which also is 
attributed the story of the flood. 

Among nearly all the Indians of the Northwest there 
is a flood story, or legend, and there must be hundreds of 
Noahs in the minds of the story-tellers. We are told, for 
example, that when the Great Spirit flooded the entire 
earth, there was not quite enough water to cover the 
summit of ]Mount Tacoma. The man chosen to prevent 
the human race from being entirely obliterated was warned 
in a dream, or by some other means, to climb to the 
summit of this great mountain, where he remained until 
the wicked ones below him were annihilated, without a 
man, woman or child escaping. After the flood was over 
and the waters began to recede, the Great Spirit hypno- 
tized or mesmerized this solitary human being, and created 
for him a wife of exceptional beauty. Together these two 
recommenced the battle of life, and, as the legend runs, 

23 



380 3ir XATIVE LAJSFD. 

every human being in existence can trace his lineage to 
them. 

The mountain is surely worth all that has been said 
about it. Its great height has already been commented 
upon. Standing, as it does, with its summit 14,444 feet 
above the sea level, it is actually a sentinel for almost the 
entire State. Hazard Stevens, the first man to climb 
Tacoma, reported that it was so called by the Indians 
because the word means, in their vocabulary, "mountain," 
and was given to Tacoma because it was a veritable prince 
amonir hills. It was at one time called Rainier, after a 
British lord, but the Indian name has generally prevailed. 

Tacoma has been described by many tourists as a rival 
to the most vaunted peaks of the Swiss Alps. As will be 
seen from the illustrations, which are remarkably good 
ones, there is a dim mistiness about the mountain. When 
the light is poor, there is a peculiar, almost unnatural, look 
about the cloud-topped peak. "When the clouds are very 
white, the line of demarcation becomes faint in the ex- 
treme, and it is very hard to distinguish one from the 
other. Sometimes, for days together, the mountain is 
literally cloud-capped, and its peak hidden from view. 
Those who are fortunate enough to be able to appreciate 
the awful and unique in history, never tire of gazing upon 
Tacoma. They are glad to inspect it from every side. 
Some call it a whited sepulchre. There was a time when 
it was anything but the calm, peaceful eminence of to-day. 
Every indication points to the fact that it was once among 
the most active volcanoes in existence. 

There '9k a town, or rather city, of the same name as 
the mountain. This is situated on Commencement Bay. 
It is under the very shadow of the great mountain of 



THE GREAT JSFORTHWEST. 381 

which we have spoken, and which seems to guard it 
ao-ainst foes from inland. Fifteen years ago it was a mere 
village, of scarcely any importance. It has rapidly grown 
into a town of great importance. In 1873 the Northern 
Pacific Kailroad Company decided to make it the w^estern 
terminus of their important system. This resulted in 
renewed life, or rather in a genuine birth to the place, 
which now has a population of 40,000 people, and is an 
exceedingly wealthy and prosperous city. The Tacoma 
Land Company, ably seconded by the railroad, has fostered 
enterprise in this place in the most hearty manner, and 
now some of the large buildings of the town, of the very 
existence of which many Eastern people affected ignorance, 
are more than magnificent — they are majestic. 

Seattle is another and even more brilhant diamond in 
Washington's crown. It is a great city, Avith a magnifi- 
cent harbor, its name being that of a powerful Indian 
chief who, when the town was founded forty j^ears ago, 
had things practically his own way. It grew in import- 
ance very rapidly, but in 1889 one of the largest fires of 
modern times destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property, 
includinof the best blocks and commercial structures of 
the city. People who had never seen Seattle at once 
assumed that the city was dead, and speculation was rife 
as to what place w®uld secure its magnificent trade. Those 
w^ho thus talked were entirely ignorant as to the nature of 
the men who had made Seattle what it was. Within a 
very few days the work of reconstruction commenced. 
The fire hampered the city somewhat, and checked its 
progress. But Seattle is better for the disaster, and 
stands to-day a monument to the "nil desperandum" 
policy of its leaders. 



382 MY N'ATIVE LAND. 

Spokane Fulls is another wonderful instance of North- 
western push and energy. It is a very young city, the 
earliest records of its founding not going back farther 
than 1878. When the census of 1880 was taken, the place 
■was of no importance, and received very little attention at 
the hands of the enumerators. In 1890 it had a popula- 
ti(ni of some 20,000, and attracted the admiration of the 
entire country by the progress it had made in the matter 
of electricity. Its water power is tremendous, and taking 
full advantage of this, electricity is produced at low cost 
and used for every available and possible purpose. 

The State of "Washington, in which these three cities 
are situated, borders upon the Pacific Ocean, and is one of 
the greatest of our new States. The first modern explorer 
of the territory was a Spaniard, followed a few years later 
by English sailors. Just at the end of the last century, 
some Boston capitalists, for there were capitalists even in 
those days, although thej^ reckoned their wealth by 
thousands rather than millions, sent two ships to this 
section to trade with the Indians for furs. One of these 
ships was the "Columbia," which gave the name to the 
region, part of which still retains it, although the section 
we are now discussing now owns and boasts of the name 
of the "Father" of his and our country. 

Washington became a State five years ago. It is a 
great mining countrj^ but is still more noted for its 
wonderful lumber resources. The trade from Puget 
Sound is tremendous. One company alone employs 1,2')0 
men in saw mills and logging, and it is responsible for 
having introduced improved machinery of every type into 
the section. The early history of the great lumber busi- 
ness is full of interest, and this is one point alone in which 



THE GREAT KOBTHWEST. 383 

the advance has been tremendous. Another great com- 
pany cut up 63,000,000 feet of himber in one year, and 
shipped more than half of it out of the country. White 
cedar of the most costly grade is very common in "Wash- 
ington, and it is used for the manufacture of shino-les, 
which sell for very high prices, and are regarded as 
unusually and, indeed, abnormally good. White pine of 
immense quantity and size is also found. Some of the 
logs are so large that they are only excelled by the 
phenomenal big trees of abnormal growth which are found 
some hundreds of miles farther south on the o-reat 
Pacitic Slope. 

Idaho is another of the great States of the great 
Northwest. It lies largely between the two States just 
described so briefly, and its shape is so peculiar that it has 
been spoken of as resembling a chair, with the Rocky 
Mountains and the Bitter Root Range as its front seat and 
back. Another simile likens it to a right-angled triano-le, 
with the Bitter Root Range as its base. It is a vast table- 
land, wedge shape in character, and may be said to consist 
of a mass of mountain ranges packed up fold upon fold, 
one on top of the other. 

Three names were submitted to Congress when the 
Territory was first named. They were Shoshone, Montana 
and Idaho. The last name was chosen, finally, because it 
is supposed to mean "The sight on the mountain." The 
more exact derivation of the name seems to be an old 
Shoshone legend, involving the fall of some mysterious 
object from the heavens upon one of the mountains. The 
scenery in this State is varied in everything save in beauty, 
which is almost monotonous. Bear Lake, one of its great 
attractions, is a fisherman's paradise. Its waters extend 



384 2IY XATIVB LAXD. 

twenty miles in one direction and eight or nine miles in 
the other. This vast expanse of water is one of the best 
trout fishing resorts in the world. Although in a valley, 
Bear Lake is so high up in the mountains that its waters 
are frozen up for many months in the year, the ice seldom 
breaking up until well into April. At all times the w\ater 
is cold, and hence especially favorable for trout culture. 
Lake Pen d'Oreilles is about thirty miles long and varies in 
width from an insignificant three miles to more than 
fifteen. It is studded with islands of great beauty and 
much verdure. Close by it is the Granite Mountain, with 
other hills and peaks averaging, perhaps, 10,000 feet in 
height. The lake has an immense shore line, extending as 
much as 250 miles. For fully a tenth of this distance the 
Northern Pacific tracks are close to the lake, affording^ 
passengers a very delightful view of this inland scene, 
which has been likened to the world-renowned Bavarian 
lake, Konigs See. 

The State is also well know^n on account of the reputa- 
tion for weird grandeur won by the Snake River, also 
known as the Shoshone. This is a very rapid stream of 
w^ater. By means of its winding course it measures fully 
a thousand miles in Idaho alone, and drains about two- 
thirds of the State. Near the headwaters of the Snake 
River, in the proximity of Yellowstone Park, there are very 
fertile bottoms, with long stretches of valley lands. The 
American Falls plunge over a mass of lava about forty feet 
hijrh, with a railroad bridsje so close that the roar of the 
water drowns the noise of the locomotive. For seventy 
miles the Shoshone River runs through a deep, gloomy 
cailon, with a mass of cascades and many volcanic islands 
intervening. Then comes the great Shoshone Falls them- 



THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 385 

selves, rivaling in many respects Niagara, and having 
at times even a greater volume of water. The falls are 
nearly a thousand feet in width, and the descent exceeds 
two hundred feet. Many writers have claimed that these 
falls have features of beauty not equaled in any part of 
the world. According to one description, they resemble a 
cataract of snow, with an avalanche of jewels amidst solid 
portals of lava. 

Bancroft, in summing up the great features of this 
State, says very concisely that: "It was the common 
judgment of the first explorers that there was more of the 
9trange and awful in the scenery and topography of Idaho 
than of the pleasing and attractive. A more intimate 
acquaintance with the less conspicuous features of the 
country revealed many beauties. The climate of the 
vallej's was found to be far milder than, from their eleva- 
tion, could have been expected. Picturesque lakes were 
discovered among the mountains, furnishing in some in- 
stances navigable waters. Fish and game abound. Fine 
forests of pine and firs cover the mountain slopes, except 
in the lava region; and nature, even in this phenomenal 
part of her domain, has not forgotten to prepare the earth 
for the occupation of man, nor neglected to give him a 
wondrously warm and fertile soil to compensate for the 
labor of subduing the savagery of her apparently waste 
places." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

IN THE WARM SOUTHEAST. 

Florida and its Appropriate Name — The First Portions of North 
America Discovered by White Men — Early Vicissitudes of its Ex- 
plorers — An Enormous Coast Line — How Key West came to be 
a great Cigar Town — The Suwanee River — St. Augustine and its 
World-Renowned Hotel — Old Fort Marion. 



3f 



LOR.IDA is the name given to one of the least known 
States in the Union. Ponce de Leon was the god- 
father of this southeastern corner of our native land. Its 
baptism took place in a remote period. The day of the 
event was Easter Sunday, which in the Spanish language 
is called Pascua Floria, which is literally interpreted "The 
Flowery Festival." Almost by accident, therefore, Florida 
received a name which is singularly appropriate and well 
chosen. From end to end, in either direction, there is a 
profusion of semi-tropical beauty and of flowers, some of 
them entirely peculiar to the immediate vicinity. There is 
an abundance of fruit as well, and frequentlj- the blossoms 
on the fruit trees make a lovely flower show in themselves. 
The State arms are very peculiar and appropriate. The 
main figure is that of an Indian \y'nig upon a bank, scatter- 
ing flowers around him. In the distance the sun is setting 
amid beautiful hills. In the center there is a river with a 
steamboat upon it, and with a large cocoanut tree growing 
by the side. The State's motto is one which has been 
adopted by many communities, but which is ever welcome 
for the purpose — "In God We Trust." 

(3S6) 



IX THE WARM S O UTIIE. I ^ T. ?>^ 7 

lu regard to its climate, Florida can offer a great deal 
of variety. Consumptives by the tens of thousand have 
sought a renewed lease of life in the warmest sections of 
the State, and many have come back greatly benefited. 
The winters are of the Indian summer order, being singu- 
larly dry, healthy and free from dust. The Gulf Stream 
adds from five to ten degrees to the temperature in cold 
weather, and in the southern section the temperature 
rarely gets below freezing point. The exceptionally cold 
spell of 1894-95 maybe quoted as quite an exception to the 
general rule, and the heavy loss to growing fruits was as 
great a surprise as it was a loss 

Florida has the honor of being the first portion of North 
America to be discovered by white people. Ponce de Leon, 
whose very name is suggestive of romance and poetry, ex- 
plored a section of the country in the year 1513, Avhen he 
proclaimed the sovereignty of Spain over it. In 1527, a 
Spanish company of soldiers attempted to drive out the 
native inhabitants. The attempt failed, but another one 
some fourteen years later was more successful. Spain was 
not given a clear title to the peninsula without protest. 
French Huguenots built Fort Caroline on St. John's River 
at about the middle of the century. Shortly after this 
enterprise, a Spanish fleet surprised and annihilated the 
pioneers, upon whose graves they placed the inscription, 
"Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." This brutal 
attempt to give a religious aspect to the murder was re- 
sented very soon after. A French expedition captured the 
fort, hung the garrison one after the other, announcing that 
they did so, and hanged the ruffians "Not as Spaniards, but 
as traitors, thieves and murderers." 

West Florida was settled at the close of the Seventeenth 



388 2ir XATIVE LAXD. 

Century, and in 1703 the territory now included in the 
State was ceded to Great Britain in return for Cuba. 
Colonization followed, and a \evy large number of British 
Tories settled in the country. In 1814, the United States 
seized portions of the country, and four years later it be- 
came evident that European rule must cease in it. When 
in 1821 Spain ceded this territory to the United States, the 
number of white inhabitants was barely 600, although 
there were fully 4,000 Seminoles residing in it. 

The Seminole War commenced in 1835, and continued 
for seven years. The war cost some $20,000,000, and 
over 1,500 American soldiers lost their lives during the 
campaign. Over 30,000 troops were engaged in the con- 
flict, and the Indians by taking advantage of their knowl- 
edge of the country, held out against superior force for an 
extraordinary length of time. Gradually the savages were 
driven south, and at last the Seminoles were overpowered. 
Those who survived were for the most part sent west of 
the Mississippi Eiver. A few are still found, however, on 
a reservation some fifteen miles from Fort Pierce on Indian 
River. 

When the Southern States seceded, Florida went with 
them. In 1864, General Seymour led 7,000 troops nearh' 
as far as Lake City. Jacksonville remained under Federal 
control, but the State fortunately escaped being made 
a battle-ground to any extent between the opposing forces. 

Florida has a very interesting geological record. It 
was evidently founded on coral reefs, and the formations 
are so recent that few minerals are found. Phosphate 
rock is one of the most remarkable natural productions of 
the State, and the actual value of this has not yet been 
thorouffhlv ascertained. The State itself is naturally 



ly THE WABJf SOUTHEAST. 389 

divided iuto two sections, tlie East :md the West. East 
Florida includes a long peninsula, and extends westward to 
the Suwanee Eiver, concerning which the negro melodist 
delights to sing. Western Florida is more inland in char- 
acter. The measurements of the State are peculiar. Thus 
it is 700 miles from the Perdido Eiver to Cape Sable. 
From the Atlantic to the extreme west the distance is 
about 400 miles, and from north to south the distance is 
slightly greater. The peninsula itself averages rather less 
than 100 miles in width throughout. Florida naturally 
possesses an enormous coast line. Of this nearly 500 
miles is on the Atlantic seaboard, with some 700 miles on 
the Gulf of Mexico. Harbors abound on every side, and 
when Florida becomes a manufacturing State as Avell as a 
fruit-growing one, its resources for exporting will be an 
immense advantage to it in overcoming competition and 
opposition. 

This coast line makes sea fishing one of the most prof- 
itable occupations in the State. About 10,000 men are 
kept constantly employed in this work. Some of the fish 
found here are choice and costly delicacies, and include 
red snapper, pompano, Spanish mackerel and sea trout. 
Of turtle there is an abundance, and tarpon fishing pro- 
vides amusement to those who are more strictly sportsman- 
like in disposition. Fishing for sponges is also a fairly 
remunerative occupation, which always excites much inter- 
est when watched hj visitors from other States. Key 
West alone sends away sponges worth $500,000 every 
year, two great capitals of Europe being the best cus- 
tomers. 

Key West is, however, better noted for its cigars. It 
is situated on what was oriirinallv called Bone Reef bv the 



390 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

Spaniards, on account of great quantities of human bones 
being found on it by the earl}^ explorers. Eighty years 
ago, a number of New England fishermen located at Key 
West, which is about sixty miles from Florida proper and 
about ninety miles from Havana. The great revolution in 
tke nature of the town's business and habits was brought 
about by the settlement in it, less than a quarter century 
ago, of a large baud of Cuban exiles. These brought with 
them the secrets of the manufacture of cigars of the 
highest grade. They at once set about establishing fac- 
tories as large as their means allowed, and the business 
has grown so rapidly that there are now facilities for 
manufacturing nearly 150,000,000 cigars every year. To 
the man who appreciates the difference between good and 
bad cigars it is hardly necessary to say that in quality, as 
well as quantity, the product of this Spanish-American 
island has progressed. 

The harbor of Key West is the ninth port of entry in 
the country. It is so naturally impregnable that it escaped 
capture during the Civil War, when the Gulf Coast ports 
were a special source of attack and env3^ Legend and 
history twine around the harbor stories of thrilling inter- 
est, many of which have formed the plots for successful 
and celebrated novels. The town has peculiar but attrac- 
tive streets, with tropical trees on both sides. Seven miles 
distant is Key West, the most extreme southern point of 
United States territor3^ From the immense light-house pier 
the distance to the island (jf Cuba is less than eighteen miles. 

Returning to the inland, we may spend a few minutes 

'Way down 'pon de Suwanee Ribber^ 
Far, far away — 

Dare's wha' my heart is turnin' ebber — 
Dare's wha' de ole folks stay. 



IN' THE WARM SOUTHEAST. 391 

This river, as we have seen, forms the western boun- 
dary of Eastern Florida. It is a very romantic stream, 
running through a country of surpassing beauty, with 
tropical trees and undergrowth coming right to the water's 
edge. It enters Florida from Southern Georgia, and runs 
through a country which varies from forest to plain and 
from upland to valley. Along its banks there are a number 
of little Southern homes, few of them boasting of the 
magnificence of which we often read, but all of them 
peaceful and attractive. Of one of these we give an 
illustration. At first glance they may not appear to be 
anything very remarkable about the little house and its 
surroundings, but on second thoughts and glances some- 
thing more than poetical will be discovered. The old 
negro ballad from which we have quoted above gives in 
its lines a charming idea of the river and of the memories 
and thoughts which cling to it. Excursion parties arc 
very frequent along the river. Some indulge in hunting, 
and take advantage of the profusion of game on every 
hand. Others prefer to indulge in peaceful reverie and to 
think only of the quaint old folks, who, as we are told in 
the song, still stay in the vicinity. 

The Ocklawaha River resembles the Suwanee in many 
respects. Steamboats run along it for a considerable 
distance, and there is seldom difficulty in securing passcn- 
*yers. It is said that there are more alligators to a 
hundred square feet of water, in sections of this river, 
than can be found in any other water in the world. From 
the deck of a passenger steamer it is quite interesting to 
watch the pecuhar proceedings of these dangerous creat- 
ures, and many conjectures are exchanged as to what 
would happen in the event of any one of the watchers 



31»2 MY NATIVE LAXD. 

falling overboard. On the banks of the river, cedL-r groves 
are frequently seen. Florida supplies the world with the 
wood required for lead pencils, and the inroads made into 
her cedar forests for this purpose threaten to eventually 
rob the State of one of its most unique features. Cypress, 
a wood which is just beginning to be appreciated at its 
true worth, is also abundant in this vicinity, and many of 
the much talked-of cypress swamps are passed. Pine- 
apples are also seen growing vigorously, and also the 
vanilla plant, which resembles tobacco in its leaf. Vanilla 
leaf is gathered very largely, and sold for some purpose 
not very clearly defined or explained. 

The banyan tree has to be seen to be understood. It 
is really an exclusive product of Florida and is found 
in the Key West country, where sea island cotton will 
grow all the year around, indifferent to changes of season. 
The banyan is almost a colony of trees in itself, having, 
apparently, a dozen trunks in one. All the upper boughs 
are more or less united, and the old proverb of "In union 
there is strength," seems to have in it a unique illustration 
and confirmation. 

Lake Worth is one of the prettiest lakes in the South. 
It is a very beautiful sheet of water, broken only by Pitts' 
Island, which is located near its northern end. The most 
useful and desirable products of the North have here a con- 
genial home, alongside those most loved in the region of 
the equator. A New Englander may find his potatoes, sweet 
corn, tomatoes and other garden favorites, and can pluck, 
with scarcely a change in his position, products that are 
usually claimed as Brazilian. He finds in his surround- 
ings, as plentiful and as free as the water sprinkling before 
him, such straage neighbors as coffee, the tamarind, 



AA^ THE WARM SOUTHEAST. 303 

mango, pawpa, guava, banana, sapadillo, almond, custard 
apple, maumee apple, grape fruit, shaddock, Avadaco 
pear, and other equally new acquaintances. 

And these are all neighbors, actual residents, natives of 
the soil, not imported immigrants or exacting visitors to be 
tenderly treated. Giant relatives, equally at home, are 
the rubber tree, mahogany, eucalyptus, cork tree and 
mimosa. All these, within forty hours' travel of New 
York, to be reached in winter by an all-rail trip, and to be 
enjoyed in a climate that is a perpetual May. It was but 
a few years ago (less than a dozen) that the beauties of 
Lake Worth were at first dimly reported by venturesome 
sportsmen, who had gazed upon its unspeakable loveliness. 

To-day the taste and labor of wealthy capitalists from 
East and from West, have lined its fair shores wnth elegant 
homes. One of these, the McCormick Phice, has for the 
past two years been famous for its wondrous beauty. It 
is situated at Palm Bcach, on the eastern shore of the lake, 
and faces westward or inland. It thus receives the cool 
air from the lake and the breezes from the Atlantic, which 
is but a stroll distant. The entire estate comprises 100 
acres, all under high cultivation. It has a water front on 
both lake and ocean of 1,200 feet. In this lovely spot 
Mr. McCormick built a castle, so handsomely finished, 
inside and out, so tastefully designed and so elegantly 
furnished, that one would imagine he expected to enter- 
tain royalty within its walls. 

It is said that nowhere on the continent is so great a 
variety of vegetable growth presented in one locality, as is 
here to be seen in the full perfection of lusty growth. 
The cacti at this point are marvels of variety and beauty. 
One's idea of what a cactus is can never be complete until 



394 MY XATIVE LAXD. 

one has witnessed a scene such as this, and a collection of 
this magnitude. The fruit trees form a mass of groves. 
In some of these, huge cocoanuts tower away above all 
other, growth, while alongside of these monarchs of arbory 
culture there are groves of dwarf trees, less tremendous 
but quite as interesting. 

This region has been described as a mental quicksand. 
There is something in the atmosphere which makes the 
most industrious man contentedly idle. Here the nervous, 
irritable, fussy individual, who for years has never known 
what rest meant, and who has fidgeted w^hen he could not 
work, finds himself relaxing, against his will, into a condi- 
tion of what a celebrated statesman described as ''innocu- 
ous desuetude." The balminess of the air, which is at 
once warm and invigorating and bracing, without being 
severe, brings about a natural feeling of rest. The fascina- 
tion which this creates soon becomes overpowering. The 
longer the visitor remains the more completely and 
hopelessly does he give away to his feelings, until at last 
he onlv tears himself away by a painful effort. 

Biscayne Bay stands at the terminus of the peninsula 
of Florida, and at the extreme southeastern end of the 
United States. The visitor who stands here is on what is 
frequently called the great projecting toe of the Union. 
South of him there are a number of islands, but of the 
main land there is no more. The bay is almost a lake. 
It sets well into the coast, but is not quite enclosed by 
land. It is between live and ten miles wi'de and is forty 
miles long. A score of little inlets feed it from the ocean. 
The water is blue and clear and of no great depth, making 
the lake one of the finest cruising places in the world. 
All along the shores there are picturesque little settle- 



AY THE WARM SOUTHEAST. 397 

ments, all of them distinctly Southern in their appearance, 
and concerning: each of which the traveler can hear lecrend 
without number. 

St. Augustine is perhaps the most talked-about city in 
Florida. It is a quaint old Spanish city with a great 
history. The evidences of the past seem to be disappear- 
ing rapidly, the retreat being forced by the introduction 
of modern ideas and immense sums of modern capital. 
Memorial Church is one of the features of the town, and 
behind it the traveler sees, as he approaches, turrets and 
towers of every shape and size. The pavements are 
almost uniformly good, and as one is driven along the 
streets for the first time, every turning seems to bring to 
light some new wonder and some unexpected beauty. 
Hedges formed of oleanders, arbor vitee, larches and 
cedars, to say nothing of masses of roses of all kinds, 
upset all his preconceived notions of tree, shrub and flower 
o-rowth, and convince him that he has come to a land 
flowing indeed with milk and honey, where Avinters are 
practically unknown. 

The Hotel Ponce de Leon is naturally the great object 
of his search, and if his purse affords it the tourist 
certainly stops here, if only for the sake of saying that he 
has slept, for one night at least, in this extraordinary and 
marvelously magnificent hostelry. If the Ponce de Leon 
were in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis or Chicago, it 
would excite murmurs of admiration on every hand. But 
its existence would not be regarded as something extra- 
ordinary, as it certainly is in a town of the size of St. 
Augustine. The enterprise w^hich led to its construction 
has been commented on again and again, and the liberal 
methods of management have also been the subject of 

33 



398 MY XATIVE LAND. 

much commeut. As the carriage passes through the 
arched gateway into the enclosed court, blooming all the 
jear round with fragrance and beauty, the tourist begins 
to apologize mentally for the skepticism in which he has 
indulged, concerning this wonder of the asre. After 
mounting several successive terraces of broad stone steps, 
he finds himself at last before the magnificent front of the 
great hotel. Before him there is the grand doorway, 
surmounted by the oft-described arch of Spanish shields 
in terra cotta. All around there are broad gralleries and 
wide windows, with very costly, artistic cappings. The 
galleries are supported by massive but neat pillars, and the 
shaded nooks and quiet corners are full of romantic 
influence. 

Everything is reminiscent of old Spain, although the 
maofnificence and architecture is often that of the extreme 
East. There are five elegantly decorated salons, in which 
there are tables of costly onyx, and on whose walls there 
are paintings of great splendor. On the ceiling above him 
exquisite frescoes tell the story of the old cavalier after 
w^hom the hotel is named, and of his patient and faithful 
search for the fabled fountain of youth which no one has 
yet found. At dinner the visitor is almost appalled by 
the magnificence of the service, and his appetite is apt to 
be injured by his reflections as to the cost of the silver 
and porcelain set before him. Sometimes as many as a 
thousand guests sit down together, and the service seems 
to be perfect for an unlimited number of visitors. 

This great hotel was erected like the great temple de- 
scribed in scripture, practically without hammer or nails. 
Being molded from concrete, it is practically proof against 
weather and time, and it is fireproof in a sense of the term 



ly THE WAFM SOUTHEAST. 399 

far more literal thau that generally adopted in large cities. 
There is no sham work, from basement to tower. Italian 
marble, terra cotta and Mexican onyx are the principal 
materials used, and nothing "equally as good" is tolerated. 

The view from St. Augustine can hardly be excelled in 
any part of the world. The old city gates remind the 
tourist of Spanish stories and Oriental fables. Net far 
distant he sees Fort Marion, described as the oldest fortifi- 
cation in the United States. It was built by one of the 
Spanish Kings at great expense, and, according to the 
opinion of experts, is likely to survive many generations 
to come. It is constructed of cocquina cement, found only 
in Florida, and which seems to be everlasting in character. 

Fort Marion has been the scene in years gone by of 
countless events of thrilling interest, and the student of 
history, who sees it for the first time, delights to conjure up 
reminiscences concerning it. In the old Indian war days 
there were several massacres at this point, in which the 
Indians occasionally outdid themselves in deeds of blood. 
About twenty years ago, the old fort was turned into an 
Indian prison, and to it were taken some of the worst and 
apparently most irreclaimable members of Indian tribes. 
This included Mochi, the Indian squaw who seemed to re- 
gard murder as a high art and a great virtue, "Rising 
Bull," "Medicine Water," "Big Mocassin" and other red 
ruffians who had proved themselves beyond all hope of 
reformation. The watch-tower of the fort stands high 
above surrounding buildings, and is probably one of the 
oldest Avatch-towers and light-houses in the world. 

The old sea-wall runs from the fort past the historical 
old slave-market and the plaza, where cool breezes can be 
obtained on the hottest days. There is the cathedral, the 



400 MY NATIVE LAND. 

oldest place of worship in the country, if the local his- 
torians are to be believed, with its chime of bells which 
first called the faithful to worship more than 200 years 
ago. On the east the smooth waters of the attractive bay 
rivet the attention of every visitor who has in him a particle 
of poetry, or appreciation of the beautiful. Not far away 
is Anastasia Island. At the north of Mananzas Bay is the 
spot where Sir Francis Drake, one of England's first ad- 
mirvals, landed, and close by is the oft-described light- 
house, with its old Spanish predecessor just north of it. 

Not far from St. Augustine is the Carmonna vineyard. 
Here there are seventy-five acres of land covered with 
grape vines. The second year these vines yielded two and 
a half tons of grapes per acre. The sea of leaves, respond- 
ing to the gentle breeze which generally blows up, presents 
an appearance of green very restful to the eye, and opens 
up new ideas as to color and expanse. All around Moultrie 
there are acres and acres of white Niagara grapes, and in a 
few years Florida shipments of this fruit will be enormous. 






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